Sumire has lesbian feelings for Miu, which she finds confusing and seems to spark a sort of untapped desire in her. They have loving friendships but there are insurmountable barriers between them. All the characters are lonely in their own way and are joined together (or separated – however you want to see it) by unrequited love. The main themes of the book centre around loneliness and alienation.

Something happens, he is not told what, and so K travels to Greece to see what help he can offer. Miu and Sumire, now working together, take a business trip to a Greek Island. Longing for Sumire, K (that is all we are told by way of a name) finds some comfort in a purely sexual relationship with the mother of one of his pupils. Sumire, though, is in love with a beautiful, older woman, Miu, who does not, can not, return her affections. As his best friend, she is not averse to phoning at three or four in the morning to ask a pointless question or share a strange thought. The narrator, a teacher, is in love with the beguiling, odd Sumire. I inherited my copy of Sputnik Sweetheart after an old flatmate left it behind so I’ve kept it safe and found a good excuse to read it for Dolce Belezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge. I’ve read a few Murakami novels starting with when I was a young teenager and picked Dance, Dance, Dance off my Dad’s shelf – and while I wasn’t expecting such a dreamlike plot-line, I found it absorbing, curious and strangely addictive which lead me to read A Wild Sheep Chase, Kafka on the Shore, The The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. I remember wanting to read Sputnik Sweetheart when it first came out and I spotted it on the tables in the bookshops.

Sumire murakami