The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
A "dreamlike and compelling” tour de force (Chicago Tribune)—an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japan’s forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II.
Now with a new introduction by the author.
In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels.
Now with a new introduction by the author.
In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels.
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Community Reviews
Of all the Murakami novels I've read, this is my favorite. The motif of wells and underground rivers is an apt and beautiful imagery for what goes on in the lives of the characters. The superficial plot of the story is exciting, and definitely a page turner, but it's made powerful by its connections to those underground currents. Murakami definitely has a knack for the weird, but (especially in this novel) anchors it first in everyday, believable protagonists, and then even deeper into the spirituality of those characters. Most of his novels have several intriguing layers to them, but I think the intricacy of the layers in Wind-Up Bird points to artistic brilliance.
Beautiful novel. Murakami seems to take a hold of me within the first few pages. I just know: This is going to be an exciting journey.
A missing spouse. A missing cat. A well. My memorable first encounter with the mind-bending, boundary-blurring work of Murakami. Enjoy!
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