The dying are kept out of sight in care homes and hospices, and when we represent death in popular culture it is as an aberration in the pantheon of immortals whose stellar lives fill our television screens. But like the young characters in Murakami's novels, we are born into a culture that hides and denies death. It reminds us that death is natural and inexorable. Shortly afterwards Naoko commits suicide in that frozen landscape, and while Toru's life continues, a part of him remains forever wandering in winter. Toru walks beside Naoko for the last time in the snow-blanketed woods surrounding the mental institution where she is undergoing intensive therapy. When 30-something Toru Watanabe hears a fragment of the titular Beatles track after a long airplane flight, his memories are returned to his days as a young student and his love affair with the beautiful but damaged Naoko. T he novel that raised Haruki Murakami to literary superstardom ranges across the seasons, but the heart of its meaning is found in winter.
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