The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Murakami writes of contemporary Japan, urban alienation and journeys of self-discovery, and in this book he combines recollections of the war with metaphysics, dreams and hallucinations into a powerful and impressionistic work

Deeply philosophical and teasingly perplexing, it is impossible to put down

Murakami weaves these textured layers of reality into a shot-silk garment of deceptive beauty

Critics have variously likened him to Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, Don DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis and Thomas Pynchon – a roster so ill assorted as to suggest Murakami is in fact an original

Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original

How does Murakami manage to make poetry while writing of contemporary life and emotions? I am weak-kneed with admiration

[A] mesmeric story

Visionary…a bold and generous book