Table of Contents

IN

About the Author

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo.  The most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe.  He is the author of the novels Dance, Dance, Dance, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and A Wild Sheep Chase, and of The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of stories.  His latest novel, South of the Border, West of the Sun, will be published by Knopf in 1999.  His work has been translated into more than fifty languages.

Reviews

“Dreamlike and compelling.... Murakami is a genius.” —Chicago Tribune

“Mesmerizing.... Murakami’s most ambitious attempt yet to stuff all of modern Japan into a single fictional edifice.” —The Washington Post Book World

“A significant advance in Murakami’s art ... a bold and generous book.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A stunning work of art ... that bears no comparisons.” —New York Observer

“With The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Murakami spreads his brilliant, fantastical wings and soars.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

“Seductive.... A labyrinth designed by a master, at once familiar and irresistibly strange.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“An epic ... as sculpted and implacable as a bird by Brancusi.” —New York Magazine

“Mesmerizing, original ... fascinating, daring, mysterious and profoundly rewarding.” —Baltimore Sun

“A beguiling sense of mystery suffuses The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and draws us irresistibly and ever deeper into the phantasmagoria of pain and memory.... Compelling [and] convincing.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Digs relentlessly into the buried secrets of Japan’s past ... brilliantly translated into the latest vernacular.” —Pico Iyer, Time

Kumiko Okada has a satisfying career and comes from a wealthy family. Toru, her husband, is a lawyer. Little mars this young Tokyo couple's life other than the disappearance of their cat. From that minor event, however, their life together devolves into a confusing web of intrigue. Kumiko disappears, telling Toru not to look for her. Then a collection of mystics, clairvoyants, and healers enter Toru's life. Reeling, he begins to spend hours in meditation at the bottom of a dry well, becoming a healer of sorts, until his work brings him into conflict with Kumiko's powerful brother-in-law‘a conflict cast in moral terms, with Kumiko's soul in the balance. This very long journey is much less magical than simply strained. There are detours into the history of Japan's occupation of Manchuria and accounts of Japanese prisoners' lives in Siberian coal mines. Though interesting in parts, taken as a whole, this latest from Murakami (Dance, Dance, Dance, LJ 1/94) labors diligently toward some larger message but fails in the attempt.‘Paul E. Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.

"Dreamlike and compelling.... Murakami is a genius." -Chicago Tribune

"Mesmerizing.... Murakami's most ambitious attempt yet to stuff all of modern Japan into a single fictional edifice." -The Washington Post Book World

"A significant advance in Murakami's art ... a bold and generous book." -The New York Times Book Review

"A stunning work of art ... that bears no comparisons." -New York Observer

"With The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Murakami spreads his brilliant, fantastical wings and soars." -Philadelphia Inquirer

"Seductive.... A labyrinth designed by a master, at once familiar and irresistibly strange." -San Francisco Chronicle

"An epic ... as sculpted and implacable as a bird by Brancusi." -New York Magazine

"Mesmerizing, original ... fascinating, daring, mysterious and profoundly rewarding." -Baltimore Sun

"A beguiling sense of mystery suffuses The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and draws us irresistibly and ever deeper into the phantasmagoria of pain and memory.... Compelling [and] convincing." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Digs relentlessly into the buried secrets of Japan's past ... brilliantly translated into the latest vernacular." -Pico Iyer, Time