Which Japanese novelist wrote Kafka on the Shore?

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami wrote Kafka on the Shore.

First published in Japan in 2002, the novel interweaves the journeys of Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old runaway, and Satoru Nakata, an older man who can communicate with cats. Their seemingly separate stories gradually converge through dreams, prophecy, memory, and an otherworldly realm.

The book is often described as magical realism because supernatural events—such as talking cats and metaphysical thresholds—appear within recognizable modern settings rather than in a wholly separate fantasy world. Music, libraries, classical literature, and Japanese religious traditions also shape its atmosphere and themes.

Murakami’s title refers to a song within the novel, not directly to a story by Franz Kafka. The author has resisted providing a single definitive interpretation, saying the book’s riddles are meant to interact differently for each reader. The English translation by Philip Gabriel appeared in 2005 and helped bring the novel to a wide international audience.