The creepy library
The Eerie Library ( Japanese ふ し ぎ な 図 書館 Fushigi na Toshokan ) is a book by Haruki Murakami . It was first published in Japanese in 2005 and in a German translation by Ursula Gräfe in 2013 by DuMont Buchverlag . The German edition also contains 20 illustrations by Kat Menschik .
content
The young first-person narrator wants to borrow books on the subject of "Tax Collection in the Ottoman Empire" from a library. He receives three books, which are, however, marked with a blocking notice that they may not be used outside the library. The librarian, the old man , leads the narrator up a seemingly endless staircase into a cellar dungeon, where he has to read the three books with an ankle shackles.
The narrator receives a visit from a friendly sheep man who brings him coffee and donuts and wants to explain the old man's intentions. He is also visited by a girl whose vocal cords have been destroyed and who also brings him food. More and more he gets lost in the plot of the books, so that this girl appears to him in one of the characters in a book.
On a new moon night, the narrator has the opportunity to escape from the dungeon, as the old man is sound asleep at this time. The sheepman offers him his help; However, the old man is not tired now and catches the two of them. A star appears who grows bigger and bigger and finally overpowers the old man so that the narrator can escape.
Some time later, it is no longer clear to the narrator whether he experienced this story himself or just dreamed it.
criticism
"The short story from 1982 - now published for the first time in German and illustrated by Kat Menschik with gloomy serenity - is as enigmatic and beautiful as the great novels of the master of the cold fairy tale."
literature
- Haruki Murakami: The Eerie Library . With illustrations by Kat Menschik. Translated from the Japanese by Ursula Gräfe. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-8321-9717-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
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Novels: When the wind sings | Pinball 1973 | Wild sheep hunting | Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World | Mister winder | Dangerous Beloved / South of the Border, West of the Sun | Naoko's smile | Dance with the Sheepman | Kafka on the beach | Sputnik Sweetheart | Afterdark | 1Q84 | The years of pilgrimage of the colorless Mr. Tazaki | The murder of the Commendatore
Stories / short stories: The elephant disappears | How I saw the 100% girl one fine morning in April | After the quake | Tony Takitani | Blind willow, sleeping woman | Sleep | The Bakery Raids | The Eerie Library | By men who have no wives | Birthday girl
Non-Fiction: Underground War: The Tokyo Attack | What do I mean when I talk about running | Writer by profession