"A riveting new collection of short stories from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami. The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a lonely man. Some of them (like "With the Beatles," "Cream," and "On a Stone Pillow" ) are nostalgic looks back at youth. Others are set in adulthood--"Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova," "Carnaval," "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey"...

Lonely Gingerbread Baby, having set out to find a friend, enters a bakery where he tries to talk to different cookies and other figures, but winds up leading a crowd back to his house on a chase similar to the one in the familiar tale.

At first Ugly Fish likes being alone in his tank so much that he eats any fish that tries to share it, but when he becomes lonely, he devises a better plan.

"A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future"--

All the fruits gather together and enjoy a rhyming party, but poor Orange feels left out because he does not rhyme with anything--until Apple invents a new word.

"Meet Nives: widow, Tuscan through-and-through, survivor. Nives has recently lost her husband of fifty years. She didn't cry when she found him dead in the pig pen, she didn't cry at the funeral, but now loneliness has set in. When she decides to bring her favorite chicken inside for company, she is shocked, confused, and a little bit guilty to discover that the chicken's company is a more than adequate replacement for her dead husband. But one day,...

Dragon is lonely so he goes looking for a friend and when an apple falls on his head he is convinced that he has found one; but at home Apple is quiet and unresponsive, and when a visit to the doctor only makes things worse, Dragon mourns the loss of his friend--until an apple tree grows where Apple is buried.

A young boy who spends most of his time alone in his bedroom makes new friends after the monster in his drawing becomes a monstrous nuisance.

"An evocative new novel from the New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins. Beware the wrath of a woman scorned-she just might save the world. Lillie knew the empty nest would be hard when her son left for college, but she had no idea of the full extent to which her world would come crashing down-until her husband announced out of the blue that he was in love with another woman, and he would be leaving, too. Besides the fact that this announcement...

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of 10-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse, until, of course, they discover exactly what they've been looking for.