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There is something special about libraries. They are full of possibilities, knowledge and adventure. For Murakami, they could also be full of danger, weirdness and the unexplainable.

Murakami turns the expected on its head. In The Strange Library he channels the spirit of Kafka, creating a nightmarish situation of entrapment, despair and freakishness. A boy goes to the library. He wishes to learn more about the Ottaman Empire but instead finds himself trapped by an unusual old man. He forces the boy to read three books and will only allow him to leave if he can recite them word for word. No easy task.

Although it’s marketed as a children’s story, and there are strong elements of the bizarre and absurd running through it, I consider this more horror than anything else. And I think Murakami does this very well. The horror lies in the unexplainable nature of it, of its seemingly randomness and unjustness. Like Kafka, the bizarre lies under a thin layer of normality and mundanity: it’s right there under the surface of our own reality.

'Why did something like this have to happen to me? All I did was go to the library to borrow some books.�

However, it’s not that simple. There are also hallucinogenic suggestions and questions over narrator reliability. Is it magic or is it a dream? Either way, I don’t consider this story suitable for children. It’s about a child but it is undeniably dark and adult in its theme and complex in its construction and delivery. There's much more here than the surface suggests.

In terms of the afterlife of the story, of its ability to linger over your mind and stay with you, this is quite potent. I read this last night and it has played on my mind ever since because it leaves you with questions. Again, like the writing of Kafka, nothing is particularly clear. It challenges you to imagine and fill in the gaps: it makes you wonder what the situation actually is beyond the surface of the writing.

Despite its shortness, this is a very clever and engaging story. It demonstrates how great a writer Murakami can be.

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