Book Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami and Ted Goossen

Title: The Strange Library
Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Ted Goossen
Publisher: Harvill Secker

Release Date: December 2nd 2014
Synopsis:  A lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plot their escape from the nightmarish library of internationally acclaimed, best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination.

Review:

This book says it all in the title STRANGE...I finished it wondering what had just happened, and feeling a little weird coming back into reality.  

Let me just say however the design is absolutely AMAZING and should be bought on that basis alone! From cover to cover, it should win awards. It has the look and even the feel of an old library book, marble pages and all. The check out folder on the font is one of a number of simple yet effective touches. Then throughout the associated pictures, typography, use of space, colour and image is fantastic! It really drew you into this strange world and drops you down the rabbit hole with it. I could go on, but its one of those things you should take and experience for yourself.  

As to the actual plot, the story is quirky and strange, but keeps you hooked and at the end left me wanting more. The characters are blunt and you feel a pull to each one and I still wonder about them, except maybe the librarian, unless you're weird like that. Good luck next time I go into  library!  I would have liked a lot more from this, but I guess that’s the nature of such a tale, existing like a short fairy tale or fable...there's probably a thousand stories in each one of those strange corridors and forks, so for what it was I had fun taking the journey with the narrator. 

This was the first Murakami that I read (that's probably some sort of crime right?!) and I liked what I read, so will happily be exploring more of his works!