NUMBER: 96

Genre: Fiction; Origin: Japan; Pages: 200

Satisfaction rating: 7.0

OVERVIEW:

In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and - even more important - on his writing.

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NUMBER: 95

Genre: Fiction; Origin: South Africa; Pages: 200

Satisfaction rating: 6.5

OVERVIEW:

A divorced, middle-aged English professor finds himself increasingly unable to resist affairs with his female students. When discovered by the college authorities he is expected to apologise to save his job, but instead he refuses and resigns, retiring to live with his daughter on her remote farm.

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NUMBER: 94

Genre: Fiction; Origin: Japan; Pages: 200

Satisfaction rating: 9.0

OVERVIEW:

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko find the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

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NUMBER: 93

Genre: Fiction; Origin: Australia; Pages: 200

Satisfaction rating: 7.0

OVERVIEW:

Johnno portrays the life of a discontented Australian, from his boyhood in Brisbane in the forties and the pubs and brothels of the fifties to his wanderings abroad and ultimate homecoming. Told through the memories of Dante, the narrator, the reader observes Johnno as he tries to catch hold of a seemingly elusive dream.

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NUMBER: 92

Genre: Fiction; Origin: South Africa; Pages: 200

Satisfaction rating: 7.0

OVERVIEW:

Elizabeth Costello is a distinguished and aging Australian novelist whose life is revealed through a series of eight formal addresses. From an award-acceptance speech at a New England liberal arts college to a lecture on evil in Amsterdam and a sexually charged reading by the poet Robert Duncan, the reader is inexorably drawn toward its astonishing conclusion. Elizabeth Costello is, on its surface, the story of a woman’s life as mother, sister, lover, and writer. Yet it is also a meditation on the nature of storytelling.

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