Norwegian Wood By Haruki Murakami

Murakami uses a framing device so that technically his narrator, Watanabe, is middle-aged. But really this is a book about the loss of innocence, disturbing and powerful emotions, alienation, existential doubt, and all other things adolescent. On hearing the titular Beatles' song, Watanabe remembers his years as a student in Tokyo in the late 1960s when, after the suicide of his best friend, he feels prematurely wise, depressed, and disconnected from those around him. The two girls he loves, meanwhile, have some serious emotional problems. Watanabe is sardonic, over-analytical, and very cool, like Holden Caulfield with a busier sex-life. Though this book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes a the highs of adolescence as well as the lows.