Colorless Tskuru Tazaki and the years of his wanderings

On February 16, 2013, Bungei Shunju Publishing House announced the upcoming release of Haruka Murakami's new novel in April of that year ^[3] . On March 15, the name was revealed - “Colorless Tskuru Tazaki and the years of his wanderings” and the exact release date is April 12 ^[4] .

In the first eleven days, Amazon.co.jp reached 10,000 orders. The novel became the fastest-selling book on the site — a day earlier than the writer’s previous novel, 1Q84 ^[5] , needed . The publisher has produced 300,000 hardback books - more than ever in the company's history.

The lines at Tokyo stores, which began selling at midnight on April 12, reached 150 people ^[6] . By the end of the first day of sales, the publisher said it was printing another 100 thousand books ^[7] .

Translations

Russian edition

The book was translated into Russian by Dmitry Kovalenin ^[12] . The novel was published by Eksmo Publishing House on April 17, 2015 with a circulation of 45,000 copies ^[12] . The Russian Forbes recognized the book as the most anticipated among the novelties of 2015 ^[13]

“Tskuru Tazaki” is a parenting novel ^[14] with elements of magical realism about the past and present of a man who is trying to figure out why his life was derailed 16 years ago.

In the early 1990s, young Tskuru, who lived in Nagoya, was an avid fan of train stations. Tskuru was one of the five inseparable friends, which also included two boys and two girls — each of whom, except for Tskuru, had a “colored” name. But once in 1995 , during his second year at Tokyo University, his friends abruptly cut off all relations with him. And they did it without any explanation, forcing the young man to doubt himself as an empty, colorless person. In addition, his university friend soon disappears, which forced Tskuru to consider himself doomed to loneliness.

16 years have passed. Tokyo-based engineer Tazaki, 36, works for a railway company and builds stations. His new girlfriend Sarah made him wise to try to find his school friends and find out why they rejected him. In search of his old friends, he goes to Nagoya, and then to Finland.

A refrain through the whole novel passes the composition of Liszt Ferenc “Le mal du pei” ( French “ Le mal du pays ” ), which translates as “nostalgia”, “melancholy”, “inexplicable longing, embracing the heart in the open field”. Introduces Tskuru with this work, performed by Lazarus Berman , his university friend Hyde, although back in school he played this tune on the piano White.

Russian critics found significant similarities between the book and Kafka ’s novel The Process , whose protagonist was convicted by unknown forces for a crime he didn’t commit (in Murakami’s novel, the hero Tskuru is tormented with conscience for rape charges, although he was not guilty) ^[7] .

Protagonists

• Tskuru Tazaki ( 多 崎 つ く る ) [ Ta-dzaki surname can be translated as “cliff cluster”. The name Ts (y) kuru is the phonetic homonym of the verb “do, create, produce”] - the protagonist of the novel, a 36-year-old engineer designing railway stations;
• Kei Akamatsu ( 赤松 慶 ) [the literal meaning of the characters “aka Matsu” is “red pine”] is a school friend of Tskuru, nicknamed “Aka”, that is, “Red”. He was an excellent student at school. Growing up, he began to conduct seminars for employees of large companies in Nagoya;
• Yoshio Oumi ( 青海 悦 夫 ) [literal meaning of the characters “o-umi”, or “ao-umi” - “blue sea”] - a school friend of Tskuru, nicknamed “Ao”, that is, “Blue”. In his youth he was fond of sports. Works at Lexus Car Sales Center;
• Yuzuki Shirane ́ ( 白 根 柚木 ) [the literal meaning of the characters “sira-ne” is “white root”] is a school friend of Tskuru, nicknamed “Shiro”, that is, “White”. She lied, accusing Tskuru of rape. She learned to be a piano teacher and lived in Hamamatsu until she was strangled under mysterious circumstances.
• Eri Kurono ( Japanese 黒 埜 恵 里 ) [the literal meaning of the characters “kuro-no” is “black wasteland]] - a school friend of Tskuru, nicknamed“ Kuro ”, that is,“ Black ”. In school, she was unrequitedly in love with Tskura. She married a Finn, taking her husband’s surname, Haatainen ( ハ ア タ イ ネ ン ). Raises two daughters.
• Sara Kimoto ( 木 元 沙羅 ) is a girl of Tskuru. He works in a travel agency, lives in Tokyo. Two years older than him.
• Fumiaki Khayda ( 灰 田 文 紹 ) [the literal meaning of the hi-da characters is “gray field”] is a university friend of Tskuru, two years younger. He was superb at cooking. Suddenly dropped out of school and disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Minor Characters

• Hyde's father - worked as a university professor. In the late 1960s, during student riots in Japan, he took academic leave and began wandering around. Working in one of the mountain onsen , he met a man named Midorikawa, who told him an extraordinary story;
• Midorikawa ( 緑 川 , green river) - a talented jazz pianist from Tokyo , “a man of about forty-five, lanky, short hair, high forehead”;
• The head of the station is a friend of Tskuru, who told him several stories from the life of the metro;
• Sakamoto is new to Tskuru's work. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Waseda University. Silent, unsmiling, long-faced. According to Tskuru, a talented engineer will come out of it.
• Olga is a friend of Sarah, an employee of the Helsinki Travel Agency, who helped Tskur navigate the new country;
• Edvart Haathainen is Black's husband. Earns a living by pottery. He has his own cottage on the lake near the city of Hameenlinna , north of Helsinki, where he rests with his family every summer.
• Daughters of Black - 3 and 6 years old; the eldest is named after Yuzu, in memory of Belaya.

Galina Yuzefovich : “If you read at least one novel by Murakami, then you won’t be surprised to learn that an investigation upon closer examination will turn into a mirage. The storylines, which seemed important and significant, will break off and hang in the air, and the main intrigue will simply go into the sand without a hint of clue. By deliberately violating the canons of the genre, making riddles - and not offering answers to them, the writer does not deceive his reader at all, but, on the contrary, fully lives up to his expectations. ” ^[15]

• The book on the site of the publishing house "Exmo"