Sputnik Sweetheart

A mystery story about love, the cosmos and other fictional universes.

Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. Miu is glamorous and successful. Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel.

Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? Meanwhile K wonders whether he should confess his own unrequited love for Sumire.

Then, a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island: Sumire has mysteriously vanished...

'Confirms Murakami as a master of his craft... Out of this world' Time Out

Review: Sputnik Sweetheart has touched me deeper and pushed me further than anything I've read in a long time -- Julie Myerson * Guardian *
How does Murakami manage to make poetry while writing of contemporary life and emotions? I am weak-kneed with admiration * Independent on Sunday *
A beautiful novel, as light as a feather, and yet enduringly sad... a captivating book from one of the world's most interesting authors * Sunday Herald *
Murakami has been compared to everyone from Raymond Carver to Raymond Chandler - which should tell you only one thing: he's unique * Independent *
Confirms Murakami as a master of his craft... Out of this world * Time Out *
Grabs you from its opening lines. . . . [Murakami's] never written anything more openly emotional. * Los Angeles Magazine *
Murakami is a genius. * Chicago Tribune *
Murakami has an unmatched gift for turning psychological metaphors into uncanny narratives. - * The New York Times Book Review *
An agonizing, sweet story about the power and the pain of love. . . . Immensely deepened by perfect little images that leave much to be filled in by the reader's heart or eye. * The Baltimore Sun *
[Murakami belongs] in the topmost rank of writers of international stature. * Newsday *