3.5
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
ByPublisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the author of Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World comes a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for our peculiar times.
"Haruki Murakami invented 21st-century fiction." —The New York Times • "More than any author since Kafka, Murakami appreciates the genuine strangeness of our real world." —San Francisco Chronicle • "Murakami is masterful." —Los Angeles Times
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he is heartbroken – and determined to find the imaginary town where he suspects she has taken up residence. Thus begins a lifelong search that takes the man into middle age, to a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own, and on a journey between the real world and this otherworld: a shadowless city where unicorns roam and willow trees grow.
There he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together and, as the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he must decide what he is willing to lose.
A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times– and singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
"Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change/movement. Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?” —Haruki Murakami, from the afterword
"Haruki Murakami invented 21st-century fiction." —The New York Times • "More than any author since Kafka, Murakami appreciates the genuine strangeness of our real world." —San Francisco Chronicle • "Murakami is masterful." —Los Angeles Times
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he is heartbroken – and determined to find the imaginary town where he suspects she has taken up residence. Thus begins a lifelong search that takes the man into middle age, to a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own, and on a journey between the real world and this otherworld: a shadowless city where unicorns roam and willow trees grow.
There he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together and, as the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he must decide what he is willing to lose.
A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times– and singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
"Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change/movement. Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?” —Haruki Murakami, from the afterword
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe City and Its Uncertain Walls Reviews
3.5
“Tog ett tag för mig att komma in i Staden och dess ovissa mur men när jag väl gjorde det var jag fast! Väldigt speciell bok om ensamhet, kärlek och sorg. Fin, välarbetad historia som nog kommer finnas kvar hos mig. Rekommenderas!”“Magical realism delving into shadows, loneliness, dreams, life and death, and lost love with a profound tone of melancholy weaved throughout. As my first introduction to Murakami, I greatly enjoyed the journey this book took me on.
Give me a book about magical libraries and I’m sold. Add to it the themes of loneliness and life/death and I’m over the moon. This book fully lives up to my hopes on all of these points. The way Murakami discusses love, loneliness, and shadows is tender, heartbreaking, and eminently quotable.
The characters in this book are well-realized with deep feelings. I was able to connect with the main character almost instantly. The age of one character was a bit confusing, but it didn’t detract much from the overall story. And while one character was well done, I’m left a bit confused at the reason they were included by the end.
My brain feels a bit mush after finishing this. There’s a fantastical city with unicorns that feels a bit like a fever dream, but there’s also very real and raw aspects of daily human life in a big portion of this book. It is truly magical realism to its core.”
About Haruki Murakami
HARUKI MURAKAMI was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and one of the most recent of his many international honors is the Cino Del Duca World Prize, whose previous recipients include Jorge Luis Borges, Ismail Kadare, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Joyce Carol Oates.
Other books by Haruki Murakami
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