1. Haruki Murakami’s new novel, Killing Commendatore, will be published in the UK on the 9th October 2018.

2. The novel is a two-part story in one volume – Part 1: The Idea Made Visible and Part 2: The Shifting Metaphor.

3. The novel is centred on art and its creation. The story centres on a painter dealing with his separation from his wife. He goes to stay in a famous artist’s house and discovers a mysterious painting in the attic that shares the book’s title.

4. The subject of this painting is a scene from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, showing the killing of Donna Anna’s father (Il Commendatore, the captain of a group of knights) by Don Giovanni, but set in 7th-century Japan and painted in a traditional style.

5. Murakami’s stories vary widely in tone and style. This haunting and multi-layered novel is reminiscent of his masterpiece, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and takes his narrative art in new and exciting directions.

