Sara, a travel agent, arranges his trip there.

Tsukuru discovers that Kuro lives in Finland, her husband’s home country. Tsukuru then visits Aka, who also backs up the story. Ao also mentions that Shiro was murdered about six years prior. Ao says that nobody really believed this, but they felt obligated to take Shiro’s side. During their conversation, Tsukuru learns that he was booted from the group because Shiro claimed that Tsukuru raped her. He agrees, setting in motion the second half of the novel.įirst, he meets Ao, who is now a successful car salesman. Essentially, she offers him an ultimatum: If he wants to keep seeing her, then he must confront them. Sara’s urging that Tsukuru should find his former friends takes on added intensity. The narrative returns to the present, where it remains for the rest of the novel. Again, like Tsukuru’s other friends, Haida leaves without explanation. Still unable to determine if the whole thing was a dream or reality, Tsukuru begins to feel tension toward Haida, which culminates with Haida abruptly leaving Tokyo to return to his home in Akita. As the dream ends, Tsukuru awakens as he is having an orgasm and discovers that Haida is there with him. Disoriented, Tsukuru thinks he is still asleep, and when he falls back into a deeper sleep, he has a graphic sexual dream about two of his female friends, Shiro and Kuro. One night, Tsukuru awakes to find Haida in his room. In college, Tsukuru becomes friends with a young man named Haida, drawn to Haida’s intellectual curiosity and his passion for life.

When he meets a woman named Sara and tells her the story of his friend group, she urges him to confront them and find out why they did what they did. However, he is generally unable to form lasting relationships, especially with women. Years later, 36-year-old Tsukuru is a respected member of society who works as a train station engineer. Though he finally leaves behind his obsession with dying, Tsukuru cannot get over the pain that his rejection from the friend group has caused him. The dream stirred an intense jealousy in Tsukuru, which was a departure from his normal introverted and dispassionate temperament. Tsukuru finally emerges from his depression, as a result of a particularly intense dream about an unnamed woman. This period follows Tsukuru’s unforeseen and sudden abandonment by his high school friend group: Four friends inexplicably cut Tsukuru out of their lives, with no explanation for their behavior. He struggles to find meaning in life, and his isolation leads him to an obsession with dying.

Twenty-year-old Tsukuru has a very trying six months. Additionally, the novel examines mental health issues surrounding trauma, including eating disorders, depression, and emotional distress. The edition for this guide is the Kindle edition published in 2014.Ĭontent Warning: The novel portrays graphic sexual imagery, and rape is discussed explicitly.

Colorless tsukuru tazaki