India, July 4 -- Haruki Murakami's new novel, The Tale of Kaho, went up for sale in bookstores on Friday. What intrigued his readers - and critics - this time, is that the book is written from the perspective of a young woman; middle-aged men are usually the protagonists of Murakami's fiction. Whether Murakami "writes men" best or Kaho could yet surprise, will perhaps be settled in the coming days. But to sample how Murakami writes relationships, we recommend Men Without Women, a collection of seven short stories. It explores love, loss, and longing with equal doses of melancholy and humour. In Drive My Car, a widower examines his relationship with his wife and the unlikely friendship he has with her lover. Scheherazade pits a teenaged girl's infatuation against the matte, almost dull, personality of the object of her affection. In the unique misery of each "love" lost, never found, or never returned, the book forces us to contend with the weight of loneliness....