Get comfortable for Colorless

IT’S been three years since Haruki Murakami’s last novel, the epic IQ84, and fans of the celebrated Japanese author have been eagerly awaiting his next work, with the number of pre-orders surpassing his last novel.

Unlike the hefty two-part IQ84, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage comes in at under 300 pages. The storyline, which has been kept tightly under wraps, follows 36-year-old lone train station designer Tsukuru Tazaki, who decides to embark on a journey to discover why his four best friends at school suddenly cut him off during his college years without any reason, with the help of new friend Sara Kimoto. Fans of the 65-yearold’s bizarre works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, Kafka On The Shore and, to some extent, IQ84, may find that this lacks the fantastical surrealism of his previous books.

Murakami’s works are best enjoyed in one go, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage is no exception, so clear your diary, get comfortable and open page one. The stickers included are an added bonus.

The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai (Viking £16.99, ebook £8.99) 4/5

THIS is the book you hope every book will be when you open it; it has humour, intelligence and depth, is beautifully written, and houses a story that’s hard not to devour in one sitting. Set in a house, Laurelfield, in Chicago, it begins in 1999, skips to 1955 and ends in 1929, telling the intertwined stories of the generations of family who’ve lived there, and ultimately revealing a wonderful, slick twist.

In 1999, Zee and husband Douglas move into the Coach House, after it’s offered to them by her mother.

Doug is fascinated by the Laurelfield of 1929, then an artists’ colony, but Zee’s mother denies access to the attic, where the colony’s files that may contain information on the poet he’s writing a book about, are kept.

So – inevitably – Doug finds his own way up there. But what he finds is far more curious than he could have imagined...