Book Review "The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami"

What an odd and oddly beautiful little book. A little boy enters a quiet library -- “even more hushed than usual,” we’re told in the opening line -- and is sent to Room 107, where he meets a creepy old librarian who leads him deep into a maze of dark catacombs beneath the library. There, we learn of the librarian’s ghoulish designs and the boy encounters a small man wearing the skin of a sheep and a pretty young girl pushing a teacart, their worlds now “all jumbled together.” Not even fresh-made doughnuts can sweeten the boy’s nightmarish predicament as the librarian’s prisoner
. The Strange Library was designed and illustrated by famed book jacket designer (and frequent Murakami collaborator) Chip Kidd, whose moody and mysterious depictions of a child’s (and a parent’s) darkest dream match Murakami’s surreal imagination. It’s hard to discern the message. Maybe something about knowledge being free or the value of libraries. No matter. This is vintage Murakami and, at the same time, something entirely fresh. No one puts animal skins on humans like Murakami. No one would dare. --Neal Thompson

This book is about a boy who went to the library after school to return the borrowed books, and maybe borrow a new book. Strangeness libraries begin to appear when the boy is asked by one of the officers and was shown a room 107 which is located in the basement of the library and guard by a strange old man.

For fear of the old man, the boy replied any title pop up on his mind, namely "How taxes are collected in the Ottoman Empire". He did not really want to borrow the book, he just wants to get out of this strange library. However it turns out, to get out of the library is not as easy as entering. Be careful what you ask for a book, and read it to finish, otherwise ..

This book is not a book for children, as stated on the cover in the Japanese version of the book. Although the illustrations are attractive, simple vocabulary, and the characters is young , but the book is likely to come in the category of adult fantasy. With a mysterious story plot and the story that makes the reader having nightmares, of course, it would be less fit when intended for children.

This story depicts life as adults and how they spend their time. This is the kind of book where you will not be able to stop reading after the first page until you finish it. Be careful! :)