Sputnik Sweetheart - A Book Review

"Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?"

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'Sputnik Sweetheart' by Haruki Murakami

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Does it ever happen that you like an author's work very much, so much that you dread reading other works fearing you might lose the charm by overexposure, or the author may not be able to live up to the last work?

Or am I the only weird one? I'm kinda sure 🤓 that it's the latter.

I loved Murakami last when I read 'Kafka on the Shore' 4 years back. But then I dropped the idea of doing a Murakami spree.

But last week, I watched Prajakta Koli and Babil Khan talk about their book preferences and Sputnik Sweetheart came up. I had to pick it up.

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SS is a love triangle. A lonely love triangle. Lonely because the story has hardly any other characters. And lonely because all the three characters live in their own places, staying aloof of each other's feelings for the longest time. And lonely, because K., Sumire and Miu - when they talk about themselves, you share their lives, their issues and the distance they have from their perfect love lives that they desire.

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It's a short book. Can be finished in a couple of days. Some reviews on Goodreads even say that it has nothing new to offer when it comes to Murakami's works, but disagree I will. Many hooks keep you glued, entertain you - Sumire's dream sequence, Miu's tryst with an abandoned Ferris Wheel and her (SPOILER) doppelganger and K. between retaining his fling or helping her kleptomaniac son.

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And not only emotional elements, the thriller and suspense element of the book, with a surprise (not so surprising anymore) smattering of Greece doesn't let it get slow.

So, pick this up for your Murakami booster.

Rating - 🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️

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#anamslibrary #anamsreview #nerdfest #Murakami #sputniksweetheart #japan #korea #harukimurakami #literature #fiction #greece #doppleganger

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