Murakami returns with another solitary soul

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

By Haruki Murakami; Vintage (Hardcover)

400 pages, S$29.96

ONE reason why bookworms love Haruki Murakami is obvious: The protagonists in his best novels such as Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are brooding introverts forced to come out of their shells to confront the world. And what are bookworms but intense, contemplative introverts who hate to leave their literary cocoons to face the real world?

Just released on Tuesday, his latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, should please them very much, since it centres on possibly Murakami's most passive and introspective character yet - Tsukuru Tazaki, a train station engineer who is "sleepwalking through life, as if he had a…