Haruki Murakami
This was a wonderful and sad love story… but what I’ve come to love about Murakami’s writing is the environment you feel when reading his books. Granted, I’ve only read A Wild Sheep Chase (and I just started The Wind-Up Bird Chronical), but in all of his novels, I feel that I can immerse myself so easily into the scene Murakami sets. In Norwegian Wood, Toru Watanabe falls in love with the girlfriend of his dead best friend. Toru and Naoko are forever bound by their mutual loss, but slowly Naoko succumbs to her own sadness and must separate herself from everyday life and Toru, by living in a special home for mentally troubled individuals. Toru continues to attend college and meets Midori, a young woman who quickly falls in love with Toru. Toru finds himself struggling with the decision of waiting for Naoko, even though she may never recover, or letting himself fall in love with Midori.