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    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
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    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
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    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
    Audiobook26 hours

    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel

    Written by Haruki Murakami

    Narrated by Rupert Degas

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II.

    In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat.  Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo.  As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

    Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.

    Editor's Note

    Sublimely strange...

    Missing cats, psychic prostitutes, and historical secrets abound in this sublimely strange and thoroughly engrossing modern classic from one of the world's most beloved and celebrated novelists.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 3, 2013
    ISBN9780804166591
    Unavailable
    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

    4/5

    5,035 ratings179 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The first pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are filled with quotes from critics: “Mesmerizing,” “Compelling,” “Bold and generous,” the list goes on and on like posters at the box office of a Broadway play. I'm not sure I would have finished this novel if I hadn't known the level of critical acclaim it has received. Haruki Murakami breaks so many rules, it feels as if halfway through a football game the team owners decided to drop all controls and allow the players to have a street brawl. Yet once I made the effort it takes to read this novel, I found the accolades were justified. It's not a book to get lost in. It's a book to learn from, to appreciate for its unique qualities and for the way these qualities might influence other writers.This is the story of Toru Okada, a young Japanese husband who loses both his cat and his wife. He seems to have a similar response to both those losses, going out in search of the cat while also maintaining a concern for his missing wife. This is the first taste of an aspect of this story that is unusual. People care about each other, but not with a great deal of emotion. Throughout the novel we pull for Okada to find his wife and reconcile with her, but it is more about reestablishing order than it is about love. A Newsday critic said this book presents “A vision no American novelist could have invented...” As a reader, I also have a very American perspective, which may be why I find this a bit strange.Okada's wife, Kumiko, has a brother, Noburu Wataya, who is a prominent politician and someone involved with Kumiko's disappearance. He is an excellent speaker and very popular, but also quite corrupt. He is Toru's nemesis throughout the story. Noburu Wataya is also the name of the cat, which is an attempt at irony on the part of Kumiko and Toru.Another interesting character is May Kasahara, a young, school age girl, whom Toru meets while searching for his cat. She calls him “Mr. Wind-Up Bird,” because she has trouble remembering his real name. The name comes from a story he tells her about a bird whose call sounds like the winding of a giant spring. May tells Toru things like, “You might think you made a new world or a new self, but your old self is always gonna be there, just below the surface and if something happens, it'll stick its head out and say. 'Hi.'” May is a foil for Toru's odd thoughts.Two other important characters are the sisters, Malta and Creta Kano. Malta is the first of the two to contact Okada, who has been told in a phone conversation with Kumiko that he needs to speak with her. They meet and have a very odd conversation where he learns about Creta. Later he has an erotic dream with Creta in it and when he meets her she knows of the dream and says, “I am a prostitute. I used to be a prostitute of the flesh, but now I am a prostitute of the mind. Things pass through me.” The book is filled with strange, seemingly disconnected events and people, who come together in odd ways.In the latter part of the novel, the story branches off to tell about the Japanese control over Manchuria beginning in 1931 and the joint Mongolian-Soviet resistance. These are some of the most violent, but authentic parts of the book. These sections lack the dreamlike qualities of the rest of the novel, but they include people and incidents that are interconnected with the rest of the story.Steve Lindahl – author of Motherless Soul, White Horse Regressions, Hopatcong Vision Quest, and Under a Warped Cross.
    • 5/5
      By the last few chapters I was worried that this was going to have a super unsatisfying ending, but it actually didn't end up that way. I liked this one a lot!
    • 3/5
      I feel almost sacrilegious not praising this book - coming from such an accomplished writer as Murakami. But it just wasn't my cup of tea. I prefer a book with either an elaborate turn of phrase that makes you appreciate the beauty of words, or - with that non-existent - a sharp plot that makes you forget about the language. This book had neither, not for me at any rate. (One story line that actually said something to me was the Manchurian general's story - which was not the main line of the plot ). It was still a page-turner of sorts - which would make you think it's going somewhere... yet it didn't.This is my second try at Murakami's writing - I started with his "Sputnik Sweetheart", which didn't appeal to me that much either; at that time I assumed it was just the wrong book to start with exploring this writer... I might give him another try before I give up (seeing that his style is just not for me). But probably after a wrong break.
    • 3/5
      I liked it but thought he left too many loose ends. I'd have liked a hundred more pages to find out what happened to the side-characters involved.
    • 4/5
      novel about a man in Japan whose cat and then wife disappears, takes many side trips into the Japanese guilt over WWII attrocities; very experimental writing
    • 3/5
      Firstly, to read this book you must suspend everything you know about reality. Secondly, if you like lots of characters like blips on a screen (not fully developed), then this book is for you! Much of the locale are wells, both dry and with water. All of the women in this book are helpless and need saved. Many of the same character's actions are repetitive. The title? The wind up bird is an invisible bird sitting in a tree that "springs" the world. There is everything but the kitchen sink in this book: skinning of people alive, mind sex with physical ramifications, and baseball bats with human skin and hair on them. Not my cup of tea! No more Murakami for me; magic realism is not my thing. 623 pages
    • 4/5
      This is my first foray into Murakami’s works. Having finished this one, I now understand why Murakami’s stories may appeal to fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (some works I have read) and Salman Rushdie (which I have not read). It would probably help if you have a nodding understanding of Kafka as this story has a Kafkaesque chord to it. Told in a dreamlike manner, this story is a walk on the surreal side. I would suggest anyone new to Murakami – like I was – and attempting this one to approach it with an open mind and to make no assumptions as to what will happen next as you are reading. There are an awful lot of “odd” characters (like the sister psychics, Malta and Creta Kano) and events to take in. One reviewer has summarized this story as “imaginative”. Yes, it is definitely that! Some aspects of the story appealed to me more than others. I liked the quasi-detective story aspect with first a search for a missing cat and then the disappearance of Okada’s wife, Kumiko. The conversations Okada has with his teenage neighbour, high school dropout May Kasahara, seems to be the most normal aspects of this story, which isn’t saying much as even some of that dialogue verges on the “strange”. If you are not keen to read about graphic violence, you will probably want to skip certain sections of the letters Okada receives from the Japanese war veteran. Reading this one, I felt very much like an outside observer looking in, which is augmented by Okada’s passive character and the growing isolation that takes over the story. Overall, an interesting, unusual, imaginative and contemplative novel that managed to twig my interest enough to look forward to reading more of Murakami’s novels.
    • 3/5
      I just need my daily dose of Murakami.
      I forgive him of some of his repetitive themes: people with time on their hands, music references, and his fascination with teen girls because I want to believe the strange can happen in ordinary, everyday life.

      Oh my goodness, that was quite a read. Now I can look forward to opening up myself to a new book, thank god.
    • 4/5
      There is so much in this book. Such a great contemplation about unconditional love, losing and finding yourself and the strange way life goes. But on the other hand there is also something you cannot touch.
    • 4/5
      Not easy to describe or summarize. An extremely spontaneous plot that doesn't bother to explain the connections and causal relationships between events and people. Very entertaining in parts, dull in others, but overall very rewarding. One of those rare books that encourages a re-reading immediately upon completion.
    • 4/5
      fascinating , jumps around to strange and interesting worlds. Good writing, but I never attached to anyone
    • 4/5
      Bizarre but great.
    • 5/5
      Wow. A masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      Makes no damn sense.
    • 3/5
      Toru Okada loses his job, his cat , and his wife. His search introduces him to a bizarre collection of characters, including two psychic sisters, an unbalanced teenager, an old soldier who witnessed the massacres on the Chinese mainland at the beginning of the Second World War, and a very shady politician.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book. I listened to about half on audio--great reading by Rupert Degas--and read the rest, finishing it in a burst of compulsive reading last night. And, wow, Murakami has a strange mind. this book is full of different characters and stories, strange, disturbing and delicious. I won't tell too much about the plot or details, as it was great to read without preconceptions. There are a lot of dream sequences and what might be called magical realism. Though I am not sure that's exactly the right word. There are things that are happening on an inner, spiritual level and also things happening on real-life concrete level. Sometimes those two worlds converge, sometimes they are parallel.At the core, this is a simple story. It's about two people; Toru Okada and his wife Kumiko; who have been damaged by different kinds of oppressions in their early lives; and seek to build a new life together. Building something from nothing is hard; and Toru has a strange kind of emptiness as a result. Kumiko finds herself moving back into her old world, and Toru struggles to understand and to act.
    • 3/5
      I didn't like this one as much as I wanted to, but Murakami is always very hit or miss for me. I like his books best when the cast of characters is limited, so I enjoyed the earlier sections more than the later ones. I'll have to think about this one longer, I'm still not entirely sure what he was going for thematically and I thought the surreal elements were better integrated in other books of his, like Kafka and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, both of which I preferred. Of course it was well written and interesting to read though, which is always a given with Murakami!
    • 5/5
      My absolute favourite of Murakami's novels.
    • 5/5
      A man living in the Tokyo suburbs is cooking spaghetti when he receives a strange phone call. It is the first of a whole series of odd events and mysterious encounters that upset his placid, easygoing life by revealing cracks that he hadn't perceived, some of which suggest linkages or lessons from others' lives that will help steer his own. Toru Okada, the hero of this novel, reminded me of John Singer from "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" for everyone's eagerness to tell him their life's story with almost no prompting. Unaccustomed to interaction with others, his reponses are usually muted and agreeable; not knowing how to respond is what makes him an ideal listener. He begins this way as a mostly passive character, but plays an increasingly greater role in directing his next steps. He's a fascinating first-person narrator for how ably he responds to oddities and threats, contradiction and mystery. The story speaks to a divergence in realities between a real-world normality and an other-world dream state. It is an experience that this novel expresses well in the manner of its own telling, in its effect on the reader. Another theme is the unpredictability of events, a challenge to the cause-and-effect relationship between what occurs in our daily lives, as well as in the broader world around us. Many of the characters feel lost and helpless upon sensing this as a truth. I wonder whether these are frequently recurring themes in Japanese literature? I'll be reading more Murakami and perhaps others to find out.
    • 5/5
      Unusual, strange read, but could not put the book down!
    • 4/5
      Let's start with the point that Murakami is one of the most talented authors alive. Previously I had only known him through his short stories that I had read in the New Yorker but I finally decided it's time to start reading his novels, & decided to start with this.

      Another reviewer used the word mesmerizing, and I agree. I stayed up one night till 4AM because I couldn't stop reading. And yet...this isn't a 5 star book.

      I understand that the English edition cut 25,000 words from the original. I imagine in Japan the editor was intimidated by the famous author, so we are lucky his Engkish editor had more leeway. But they should have cut more, or perhaps different parts. At a certain point it became almost a chore to read certain chapters, particularly the Manchuria stories. As an aside! the May letters really should have been lost in the mail - I would have much preferred more about Creta.

      Here's where the spoilers start:

      It's not that the Manchuria stories weren't interesting, moving or well written - they were all these. I don't think Murakami is capable of writing anything badly. I also get he wanted to make the connection to the evils of Manchuria & their impact on modern Japan & human evil in general and the story in particular. The tie between Wataya & Manchuria had been mentioned, Manchuria tied into the hanging house and it was the thread between all the characters. Obviously he is making a symbolic connection between the rape of Kumiko & the rape of Manchuria. But somehow, the Manchuria stories took you out of the plot, not deeper in it. Despite their symbolic connection, Murakami didn't succeed in binding tightly & concretely the connection between the thread of Manchuria & the thread of Kumiko.

      I believe the flaw lies in the incest/abuse plot, which is too obvious & felt more like one of those cheap plot ploys authors use when they can't think of a better way to symbolize evil. Also, Kumiko felt more like a symbol than a real character - the least real & fleshed out of any character in the book. And this from an author who can make the most bizarre character palpably real!Particularly since so much real-world evil had been so brilliantly & movingly described, the big "you see this coming from 10,000 miles away" reveal at the end of the book, fell flat. It made the ending almost anti-climactic.

      Yet still, I feel like a total ingrate even mildly criticizing Murakami - he is an amazingly brilliant writer and I hope to read more of him soon. You should too!
    • 5/5
      Murakami's magnum opus
    • 4/5
      A book that keeps the reader off balance wondering where the story's going to go. The ending vague but still satisfying and the themes are constant through the entire work.
    • 5/5
      Extraordinary. Magic Realism as an exploration of metaphor and imagination in a self-referential chronicle of stories. Distinctly Japanese as in a Myazaki film: Spirited Away comes to mind. An adventure for the reader.
    • 5/5
      Amazing story arc. Made me think so many deep thoughts, lol
    • 5/5
      I quite liked this book. Tip. Murakami is much better to READ than listen to. In fact, I’m getting annoyed with Scrib, nearly all the books I want to read are audiobooks. I don’t mind listening to them in the car, but I much prefer to read. Murakami is not everyone’s cup of tea. He shouldn’t be listened to when your mind is concentrating on traffic or another task.
    • 5/5
      Öncelikle çok teşekkür ediyorum. Çok başarılı bir seslendirmeydi.Dinlemek çok büyük bir keyifti. Kitabı kendi okumamdan daha çok keyif alarak dinledim.
    • 1/5
      I don't get Haurki Murkamai's books. I don't understand his weird obsession with cats... his gross, smutty attitude toward sex, or his conveniently placed magical realism. I'm pretty sure I've never hated an author's work so much.
    • 4/5
      Een lijvig boek (860 blz), waarin de 30-jarige Toru Okada op zoek gaat naar zijn vrouw Kumiko die plots verdwenen is. Een queeste dus en in zekere zin ook een ontroerend liefdesverhaal, want de ogenschijnlijk halfzachte Toru blijkt een taaie volhouder. Onderweg gebeuren de raarste dingen die het boek een erg surre?le ondertoon geven, duiken merkwaardige figuren op en vertellen enkele mensen hun toch wel bizar levensverhaal. Geregeld bekroop me het gevoel een Japanse versie van Franz Kafka of John Irving te lezen, en het slot heeft wel wat van einde van Schuld en Boete van Dostojewski. In vele besprekingen kan je lezen dat de samenhang in het boek soms wel erg zoek is, en dat het gewoon veel te lang is. Die kritiek klopt maar ten dele. Zelf had ik wat moeite met de magisch-realistische verhaallijnen, maar door de band genomen zijn de meeste verhalen en wendingen een prachtige illustratie van hoe bizar en complex de realiteit wel is. Toru Okada weet op het einde de meeste lijnen samen te leggen in een theorie die alles een plaats geeft, maar waarvan hij zelf toegeeft niet te weten of die echt grond raakt of niet. Ik was vooral gecharmeerd door Murakami?s stijl: die is ogenschijnlijk zo natuurlijk en eenvoudig, het is misschien een rare metafoor, maar ik vind dat het boek leest als ?lopend water?, complexloos en naturel. Dat heeft alles te maken met hoofdfiguur Toru, die met open ogen en stille bedachtzaamheid naar de vreemde gebeurtenissen en figuren rond hem kijkt, voorzichtig zijn weg probeert te banen in het labyrint en dan resoluut zijn keuze maakt. Opvallend is de bijzondere aandacht die Murakami geeft aan zintuigelijke indrukken: geluiden, geuren, kleuren en smaken worden voortdurend aangehaald als kleine, maar toch heel relevante details. En dan zijn er de krachtige scenes en figuren die Murakami ons schenkt van Toru?s verblijf in de put, van de vreemde zusjes Kreta en Malta Kano, het villen van een Japans geheim agent door een voor de Sovjets werkende Mongool, de heerlijk complexloze 15-jarige May Watanabe, enzovoort. Misschien is het boek wel een beetje te lang, maar ik heb er wel echt van genoten.
    • 4/5
      After reading about 200 pages of this novel, I no longer wanted to know more about what happened to the characters. The pacing is slow and found the narrator to be not reliable. There is a marriage breakdown and the narrator seemed non-plused by this and I did not want to figure it all out. so, I returned the book to the library.

      1 person found this helpful