Sputnik Sweetheart

one. two. three.

This little book by Haruki Murakami is so beautifully written its hard to believe that it was translated. Sumire (Japanese for Violet) is a solitary and disgruntled dreamer. Longing to become a writer, she reads Kerouac and writes endlessly. Her one friend and our narrator, "K," explains to our child-like heroine the complexities of life lived in societal norms. When Miu, an older woman, enters Sumire's life she becomes the white-hot blinding sun in Sumire's universe and she will do anything to stay in that orbit. The trio grapples with loneliness and alienation in their own hearts and the greater world around them while their stories unfold. When Sumire mysteriously vanishes on a small island in Greece the boundaries of our reality and that of dreams blur when Miu's haunting secret is revealed.