Skip to content
The Elephant Vanishes episode artwork

Aug 1, 2026 19 min

The Elephant Vanishes

from Book Shelter Hosted by Book Shelter

A collection of critical praise, narrative excerpts, and a table of contents for Haruki Murakami’s short story collection, The Elephant Vanishes. The opening pages highlight the book's surreal humor, deadpan style, and its ability to uncover hidden, parallel worlds within the mundane reality of modern Japan. A substantial portion of the text features the beginning of the story "The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women," which follows an unemployed protagonist dealing with an unsettling, anonymous obscene phone call. While navigating his domestic routine of cooking spaghetti and ironing shirts, the narrator also contends with his wife’s request to search for their missing cat. His journey leads him into a mysterious "passage," a hidden strip of land behind neighborhood homes that serves as a metaphor for his own aimless existence. Ultimately, the sources illustrate Murakami's signature blend of metaphysical mystery and the quiet anxieties of ordinary life. You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms: https://linktr.ee/book_shelter Produced by Podcai Studio: https://www.podcaistudio.com/

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

The Elephant Vanishes

0:00 19:09

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (Full Audiobook) Robert Greene Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature.In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in t Tao Te Ching by Laozi (Author), Stephen Mitchell (Full Audiobook) Laozi Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living, and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching looks at the basic predicament of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love; to child rearing, business, and ecology. Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Book Shelter?

This episode is 19 minutes long.

When was this Book Shelter episode published?

This episode was published on August 1, 2026.

Can I download this Book Shelter episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.