Killing Commendatore

When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he secludes himself in the mountain home of a world famous artist. One day, the young painter hears a noise from the attic, and upon investigation, he discovers a previously unseen painting. By unearthing this hidden work of art, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances; and to close it, he must undertake a perilous journey into a netherworld that only Haruki Murakami could conjure. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art, Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.

Haruki Murakami is my all-time favorite author. His implementation of absurd and surreal elements in order to process complex emotions and experiences truly ensnares me. The story follows a protagonist who is an artist who paints portraits for a living. Following the divorce from his wife, he finds himself in the middle of the woods living in a cabin that used to be the house of Tomohiko Amada, a famous traditional Japanese painter. He accidentally triggers a cycle of mysterious and odd events and meets an array of peculiar people. A lake separating our protagonist from a wealthy, strange neighbor is a lovely homage to The Great Gatsby. If you love the exploration of love and loneliness and are curious to see how art and war are essential to each other in this story, give this book a go!