The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
Andrea K says:
"What is it about Haruki Murakami? What inspires the legions of devotes fans around the world for this acclaimed Japanese author? His novels are both surreal and humorous, accessible despite their themes of loneliness and alienation. Despite the Japanese settings, Western culture permeates the characters and their tastes. During the latest round of Nobel Prizes, London bookmakers gave him 9/1 odds to win the fiction prize. Here at the Tattered Cover, our fiction buyer received one advanced copy from the publisher, and had to hold a drawing to see which employee could read it first. If Mr Murakami ever comes here for a book signing, at least every TC employee would eagerly show up to get their copies of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle signed.
The latest novel from Murakami, 1Q84, is a sprawling epic and a veiled homage to George Orwell's 1984. Selling a whopping 4 million copies in Japan [it was published as a trilogy in Japan], it is another example of Murakami's amazing talent. Considered by Japanese critics to be his magnum opus, one quote from the Japan Times stating that it 'may become a mandatory read for anyone trying to get grips with contemporary Japanese culture.' After impatiently waiting 2 years for the English language translation, his fans will finally be rewarded on October 25th.
It is set in a parallel word that looks remarkably like Japan set in 1984, except for the two moons hanging in the sky. Against this back drop, the lives of two solitary people play out. Aomame, a young woman stuck in a traffic jam, takes the advice of her cab driver and leaves the cab for an emergency exit on the freeway. Once she descends the stairs, she enters the world of 1Q84. Tengo, an aspiring writer, is given the job of ghostwriting a teenage girl's mysterious fantasy novel. The book becomes a bestseller, and draws the attention of an ominous religious cult. So begins their alternate lives, aided and abetted by the teenage girl, the religious cult, hit men and private detectives. Their lives at first seem unconnected, but nothing is quite that simple in a Murakami book.
Expect to hear a lot about 1Q84, one of the most anticipated novels of the fall season, and expect it to show up on many critics' best-of lists by the end of the year. Do yourself a favor: even if you don't read 1Q84, read any of Murakami's novels. You will be smitten, like the rest of us here at the Tattered Cover."
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