A review by h_motionless
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

(4.5)
Sputnik Sweetheart is a 1999 literary fiction novel by Haruki Murakami, and it is one of my all-time favourites. It follows a young woman called Sumire, an aspiring writer, who falls in love with a woman called Miu, who is seventeen years her senior. The narrator of the novel, known only as 'K', is one of her closest friends, and the two of them have in-depth discussions about the differences between love and sexual desire. Things go awry when Sumire and Miu travel across Europe, and an unexplainable event occurs.

I read this book in one sitting, and I loved it from cover to cover. Murakami has the ability to suck me into a story I cannot come out of, until I have read every single word. Sputnik Sweetheart is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read, and I don't understand why this book isn't as popular as some of Murakami's other works, such as [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924361l/11297._SY75_.jpg|2956680], which I actually believe to be inferior to this novel.

This novel is fiction at its finest. You can't expect many answers from a Murakami novel, and you usually leave his writing with more questions than answers, but that's part of the beauty of it. If you come out of a Murakami novel feeling frustrated at a lack of closure, then Murakami is not for you. But if you go into his works not expecting many answers, and you just want to bathe in the poetic beauty that is his storytelling, then you will fall in love with this book, just as I have over the last three hours.

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