The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

paperback, 611 pages

Published Sept. 13, 1997 by KNOPF..

ISBN:: 978-0-9653419-8-1

(2 reviews)

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. (source)

23 editions

iddcutie reviewed The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

I just like it, okay?

4 stars

I'm not entirely sure what keeps drawing me back to Murakami's work. I think perhaps its how he blends mundanity with the surreal, and his unique prose (or at least, what uniqueness is able to be translated.) But even those reasons seem lacking. There's something more ineffable at play as to why I like his work, and that is to say, I just like it. Or at least, right now, I do not have the words to describe my pull towards his work, and why I loved this book especially, but maybe I can say that it's akin to Toru Okada's mysterious pull toward the well. Or really, I just need to let The Wind Up Bird Chronicle marinate my brain for a bit, reread it a few times, before I can give it a proper review.

Nathan John Cooper reviewed The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (The Complete Classics) by Haruki Murakami

Absolute Perfection

5 stars

I am vaguely new to listening to audiobooks and just reading in general so my thoughts are not backed by much experience but from the few books that I have listened to and read in the past, this is by fast the best.

The narrators voice is incredibly soothing and calm while pronouncing every word with impeccable accuracy this makes the experiencing much easier when compared to some other narrators whose voice you have to pay an extreme amount of attention to so that you can understand the words being read.

The story is amazing and creates such a beautiful and clear view in the listeners mind as to what the world surrounding our characters is like. It's the kind of descriptions that takes a location and turns it into a character.

This book is simply incredble. The story, the characters, the beautifully described locations from 'enveloping moonlight' to the …

I am vaguely new to listening to audiobooks and just reading in general so my thoughts are not backed by much experience but from the few books that I have listened to and read in the past, this is by fast the best.

The narrators voice is incredibly soothing and calm while pronouncing every word with impeccable accuracy this makes the experiencing much easier when compared to some other narrators whose voice you have to pay an extreme amount of attention to so that you can understand the words being read.

The story is amazing and creates such a beautiful and clear view in the listeners mind as to what the world surrounding our characters is like. It's the kind of descriptions that takes a location and turns it into a character.

This book is simply incredble. The story, the characters, the beautifully described locations from 'enveloping moonlight' to the wonderful 'sand dunes' alongside freezing cold blue rivers the locations never disapoint to take you out of this often bland world and envelop you in Murakami's world, 'a world where cats with bent tails live, and there are little backyards, and alarm clocks ring in the morning.' I don't how I would like to draw this review to an end so I'll just reiterate the point that this book is incredible and if you are reading this to discover whether it is worth your time and energy. It is.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone.