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.

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607 pages

Average rating: 7.75

107 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Library K.V.
Dec 30, 2024
8/10 stars
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.
andywarholiday
Dec 19, 2024
9/10 stars
A missing spouse. A missing cat. A well. My memorable first encounter with the mind-bending, boundary-blurring work of Murakami. Enjoy!
lazcas
Jul 05, 2024
10/10 stars
This is my second Murakami book, which I read right after Kafka On The Shore. Kafka was my favorite recent book until I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami's writing has a way of making you feel like you are in a fever dream that you never want to wake up from. Every character in this book is well written with depth. In classic Murakami fashion there's a perfect balance of absurd playful interactions between characters. The story strikes a perfect balance of surrealism with magical elements but still finds a way to feel real because of the themes involved are real life problems we are all familiar with. This book will stick with me forever.
sara08
Apr 22, 2024
6/10 stars
It made me think more about how childhood traumatic experiences haunt us throughout our lives.
JShrestha
Sep 11, 2023
6/10 stars
Flirting between the real world and the dream-like state of another parallel dimension existence, following the protagonist and his grasp of trying to understand his reality. The search for a missing cat has never been so filled with adventures and sexual desires. I love this author but the length of his novels conflicts me as the storyline could be created into a short story but his writing just puts you in a trance enjoying his writing style.

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