Norwegian Wood (film tie-in) by Haruki Murakami Vintage HK$104
Haruki Murakami is not the most obvious candidate for cinematic adaptation. His novels are defiantly literary. That hasn't stopped director Tran Anh Hung from filming Norwegian Wood, Murakami's fifth novel.
First published in 1987, the book is one of Murakami's more film-friendly efforts. Our narrator is Toru Watanabe, who is approaching middle age, becoming forgetful and beset by a sense of temps perdu. Watanabe is in Germany when he hears an orchestral rendering of The Beatles' Norwegian Wood. 'The melody never failed to send a shudder through me,' he thinks, 'but this time it hit me harder than ever.' Watanabe says 'Memory is a funny thing', and it transports him back to his youth for an extended flashback. Considering that the novel's opening sentence is 'I was 37 then', we now have Watanabe looking back at Watanabe looking back at Watanabe. The story is a tale of two girls: Naoko, his quiet soulmate, and Midori, a bubbly sex bomb. Choosing who to love has a profound effect on Watanabe's future. Norwegian Wood is dark, sexy and playful but rings emotionally true.