''Sputnik Sweetheart'' was first published in 1999 and it is a great love story covering some interesting topics, such as love triangles, unrequited love or same-sex relationships.
Sumire, the main protagonist of the story, falls in love with Miu, a woman 17 years older than she was. The best friend of Sumire, also known as K, is secretly in love with Sumire while she is telling him about the woman she felt for.
Sumire becomes more concerned with approaching her sexuality and expressing her feelings, things that she discusses with K. She is fascinated about Miu and even tries to adopt some of her habits and becomes another person after meeting Miu.
The name of the book comes from a discussion between Sumire and Miu with regards to literature and Sumire decides at that moment to give Miu a private name, that of ''Sputnik Sweetheart''.
Sumire is a young woman of 22 years who falls in love for the first time and is soon overwhelmed with these feelings inside her. Besides these differences, Sumire is also less gorgeous than Miu.
The two women spend a nice time on a Greek Island whereas K is more settled in his own social life he made efforts to adapt to. However, after some time, Sumire disappears without a tray, leaving both Miu and K stupefied about it.
The reason behind this disappearance of Sumire might be related to the fact that the only possibility for Sumire to fulfill her dreams is leaving Miu.
The book is intriguing and very fascinating for those interested in human relationships' depths and wanting to discover more facets of a love story.
Hope you did enjoy my post and maybe decided to read this book if it appealed to your senses. Murakami has his unique ways of bringing relationships in front of us and ''Norwegian Wood'', his more known book, is also a great example in this sense.