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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Readers say The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a mesmerizing mix of surrealism and reality, with vivid descriptions and deep existential themes. Reviewers ...
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.
A missing spouse. A missing cat. A well. My memorable first encounter with the mind-bending, boundary-blurring work of Murakami. Enjoy!
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.
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