The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
A Novel
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4.5 • 721 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In the blink of an eye, Toru Okada's ordinary domestic world is upended. Much of the thrill of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle lies in how mild-mannered Okada reacts to the avalanche of mystical weirdness he shakes loose when he sets out in search of his cat and wife. But author Haruki Murakami also colors his hero's suburban Tokyo surroundings with such rich detail that it blurs the line between reality and bizarro fantasy. Add to this a blithe, sinister antagonist, and Chronicle is an epic feast for the imagination.
Customer Reviews
Strange & Beautiful
This was a strange, beautiful, and sometimes heavy book. I found myself most connected to the slower, everyday parts in the beginning, those quiet moments where the ordinary starts to feel just a little off. That’s where the story really pulled me in.
Later, as it dug deeper into the past and the war stories, it started to feel slower and more distant. I understood why those parts were there, but they didn’t resonate with me as strongly. Still, there’s no denying Murakami’s ability to blur reality and dream, leaving you with more questions than answers, in a good way.
Some pieces stayed just out of reach, but others hit hard. It’s the kind of book that lingers. Not everything made sense by the end, but somehow, I’m okay with that.
Mr Murakami did it again
Like a lot of his books this one also has a lot of dream like surrealism happening, All the characters have somesort of a connection. It’s hard to differentiate reality from dreams, although dreams are sort of a different reality. I enjoyed this book, a lot to unpack after reading it through.
Parallel Realities
A perfect book for our times, a modern Through the Looking Glass in many ways. Better than any counseling to allow me to accept that nothing may be as it first seems again.