Murakami is one of my favorite writers, and this is an excellent interview:

I think that it’s actually connected to “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.” I wanted to write a sequel 15 years ago, but I gave up. But I feel like “Kafka on the Shore” is connected to that book on a deeper level. Two parallel stories combine in the end. The structure is similar. And the theme of both books is a story of two different worlds, consciousness and unconsciousness. Most of us are living in those two worlds, one foot in one or the other, and all of us are living on the borderline. That’s my definition of human life. The title is about the borderline of land and sea, living and dead.

Via Jason.

The link for Kafka on the Shore dot com doesn’t work… anyone know another address?

I did find this excerpt from Kafka on the Shore on Google, though.