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1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

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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.

Books 1 and 2 release in 7 days in English in the UK! With Book 3 releasing soon after on the 25th

I believe all 3 books are releasing together in one cover for the US release (on the 25th)

Book trailer


Some teasers from the US publisher

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So who's buying?! Anyone read it already?
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Wow, this is still only available in hardcover in Japan and I actually just started reading it last night. That's a fast translation!
 

Mumei

Member
Have it preordered!

I'm rather excited, although a bit nervous about the third part having a different translator.

Zefah said:
Wow, this is still only available in hardcover in Japan and I actually just started reading it last night. That's a fast translation!

Two years (for books 1 / 2, at least) doesn't seem especially fast to me...
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Mumei said:
Have it preordered!

I'm rather excited, although a bit nervous about the third part having a different translator.



Two years (for books 1 / 2, at least) doesn't seem especially fast to me...

Oh, I didn't realize it was so old. A friend of mine just lent them to me and the way he spoke of it made it sound like it was a pretty recent book. Anyway, so far I'm rather enjoying the story.
 

Mumei

Member
Zefah said:
Oh, I didn't realize it was so old. A friend of mine just lent them to me and the way he spoke of it made it sound like it was a pretty recent book. Anyway, so far I'm rather enjoying the story.

Well it is his newest book, so in that sense he is right~
 
Suairyu said:
Thought I saw 'Ryu Murakami' and was about to get excited. Read the blurb and got excited anyway.
Have you ready any Haruki Murakami before?
I've read both Ryu and Haruki and the latter is definitely better ;)
 

Cosmic Bus

pristine morning snow
Jenga said:
interested but wary

my love affair with murakami has gone stale over the years

Same. Starting since Kafka On the Shore, I haven't really found much enjoyment in his novels. Maybe my tastes have changed, maybe his writing has. Either way, I find myself slightly intrigued by this new one, but probably not enough to bother reading it.
 

Suairyu

Banned
BlazingDarkness said:
Have you ready any Haruki Murakami before?
I've read both Ryu and Haruki and the latter is definitely better ;)
None by Haruki, no. I enjoy Ryu because he's one of the few pulp-thriller/horror authors whose writing is past the level of something I might have considered challenging at age 8. It's trashy, but it's good trashy.

Judging from this, Haruki sounds more literary fiction, correct? Where would be a good starting point for his work (or will 1Q84 be just that)?

dluu13 said:
What's the hype about? Am I missing something big?
Sad to think that a book simply getting a thread means it must have some big hype. I mean, I totally get where you're coming from - books don't tend to get threads on GAF unless it's the next installment of Fantasy Pulp Adventures or because a Gaffer read it and couldn't tell the difference between plot and story so had to make a thread trashing it.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
"As he carefully prepared the pasta and salted the now boiling water, he considered for a moment, how lucky and handsome and successful Takahashi was. Then, as the spaghetti neared its elusive al dente condition, he considered Michiko's perfect chin, smooth and poreless, like a ceramic doll. Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. As if some kind of woodland beast was impatient to enter."

Probably.
 

AAequal

Banned
dluu13 said:
What's the hype about? Am I missing something big?
He is a great writer and going by reviews from Germany and Sweden (has already been translated there) this is his best book yet. It's kinda sad that GAF doesn't have more threads about books and great authors.
 
Suairyu said:
Judging from this, Haruki sounds more literary fiction, correct? Where would be a good starting point for his work (or will 1Q84 be just that)?

Yeah he has a pretty big cult following across the world (some would describe it that way) his writing is quite droll with a surreal/off kilter tone and is rather dream like and complex. Always intriguing I find
He has dipped into fiction before with stuff like Underground (a collection of his interviews with survivors of the Tokyo Underground Sarin gas attacks) but largely he's fiction

Most people would recommend you check out Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood first :) Have a look on Amazon for reviews and such, they're very popular
 

dluu13

Member
Suairyu said:
Sad to think that a book simply getting a thread means it must have some big hype. I mean, I totally get where you're coming from - books don't tend to get threads on GAF unless it's the next installment of Fantasy Pulp Adventures or because a Gaffer read it and couldn't tell the difference between plot and story so had to make a thread trashing it.
Maybe I should read this. I haven't read a fiction book in... a long time.
 

Empty

Member
wasn't that impressed by the extract printed in the new yorker, but i'm still excited for next week as murakami is one of my favourite writers and the summary sounds interesting.

been a long time since i last bought a book on the day of release like i do with videogames. kinda weird for me.
 

AAequal

Banned
BlazingDarkness said:
Yeah he has a pretty big cult following across the world (some would describe it that way) his writing is quite droll with a surreal/off kilter tone and is rather dream like. Always intriguing I find
He has dipped into fiction before with stuff like Underground (a collection of his interviews with survivors of the Tokyo Underground Sarin gas attacks) but largely he's fiction

Most people would recommend you check out Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood first :) Have a look on Amazon for reviews and such, they're very popular
I would say the short stories are best starting point. They give good and clear image what to expect from the novels. Norweigian Wood is his most accessible work but doesn't really prepare you for the more surreal works of his.
 

omgkitty

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
"As he carefully prepared the pasta and salted the now boiling water, he considered for a moment, how lucky and handsome and successful Takahashi was. Then, as the spaghetti neared its elusive al dente condition, he considered Michiko's perfect chin, smooth and poreless, like a ceramic doll. Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. As if some kind of woodland beast was impatient to enter."

Probably.

Damn his character's sure do love to make al dente spaghetti. Okada loves made spaghetti several times in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I have been reading that book for about 2 months now and I am only half-way through. Definitely need to finish it before the 25th!
 

omgkitty

Member
BlazingDarkness said:
Most people would recommend you check out Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood first :) Have a look on Amazon for reviews and such, they're very popular

The first novel I read of his was After Dark. It's not really like his other works as it has a very screen-written type style to it. If you read that book and don't picture yourself watching a movie, you're doing it wrong. It's got that Murakaminess to it, and I really enjoyed it even if some people aren't huge fans of it. It's pretty short and could be a decent start.
 

besada

Banned
I have it pre-ordered and am eager to start reading.

Edit: I recommend Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World as a good beginning. That's the first one I read, and it caused me to hunt down everything, from the novels, to the non-fiction, to the short stories and read them voraciously.
 
omgkitty said:
The first novel I read of his was After Dark. It's not really like his other works as it has a very screen-written type style to it. If you read that book and don't picture yourself watching a movie, you're doing it wrong. It's got that Murakaminess to it, and I really enjoyed it even if some people aren't huge fans of it. It's pretty short and could be a decent start.
Strangely, I was reading After Dark just the other day!
It kinda sums Murakami up for me as a whole, where, it's not so much as in usual fiction where you're following a series of events in a story, it's more about just listening to the characters interacting with each other and portraying these different emotions that we can all relate to - obviously there's the usual strange offbeat feeling to the scenarios the characters are involved in, but it's how the characters talk to each other that I really enjoy
 

- J - D -

Member
I just finished reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles a week ago and thought it was wondrous. The memories I have of the characters, places and events are still so vivid. The first Murakami work I read was Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Made me a fan. It was a shame that I followed that up with After Dark, because it's probably my least favorite thus far.

Really looking forward to IQ84.
 

Empty

Member
omgkitty said:
The first novel I read of his was After Dark. It's not really like his other works as it has a very screen-written type style to it. If you read that book and don't picture yourself watching a movie, you're doing it wrong. It's got that Murakaminess to it, and I really enjoyed it even if some people aren't huge fans of it. It's pretty short and could be a decent start.

i love it too. it's a good start especially if you're out of the habit of reading for fun as it's such a breezy read yet also very engaging. so in this case i would recommend it to dluu13, then if he/she likes it (i finished it on a two hour flight, so it's not long at all) then they can move onto the longer, more demanding novel 1Q84 and talk about it here.
 
Wll check this out to cool off between Clash of Kings and the next GRRM book. Will probably add the new pratchet in between those as well.
 
Very excited but hate that cover. Feels like I've seen a lot of covers that are similar to it, though the only thing that immediately comes to mind is the Never Let Me Go cover.
 

survivor

Banned
Have to preorder it very soon. I still want to see if Chapters in-store prices will be the same as their online prices or not. I don't like paying 10 bucks extra just to get this day 1.
 

marrec

Banned
WonkersTHEWatilla said:
I just finished reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles a week ago and thought it was wondrous. The memories I have of the characters, places and events are still so vivid. The first Murakami work I read was Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Made me a fan. It was a shame that I followed that up with After Dark, because it's probably my least favorite thus far.

Really looking forward to IQ84.

Man, nobody seems to enjoy After Dark as much as his other stuff but I really liked it for what it was. Maybe I'm just a blind fan, but I'd put After Dark above Dance, Dance, Dance in my ranking.

Yes, cannot wait for IQ84. My Wife absolutely hates Murakami which gave me the small thrill of rebellion when I pre-ordered from Amazon. And I dig the Cover.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Looking forward to this; although I'm probably going read this late, since i have a bunch of books i need to read first.
 

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
I preordered this from Amazon back in March. Can't wait for it to get here. Maybe I'll actually start it!
In like three or four years.
 
Have had it preordered on Amazon for awhile now. Very excited to read it but it now comes out around the same time the Steve Jobs book does so it will have to wait to be read until after that.
 

omgkitty

Member
marrec said:
Man, nobody seems to enjoy After Dark as much as his other stuff but I really liked it for what it was. Maybe I'm just a blind fan, but I'd put After Dark above Dance, Dance, Dance in my ranking.

Yes, cannot wait for IQ84. My Wife absolutely hates Murakami which gave me the small thrill of rebellion when I pre-ordered from Amazon. And I dig the Cover.

INSTANT DIVORCE!
 
I think 1&2 have been out for almost a year over here and I just picked up Book 3 which came out today. Looking forward to see how it ends.
 

Xater

Member
slaughterking said:
I think 1&2 have been out for almost a year over here and I just picked up Book 3 which came out today. Looking forward to see how it ends.
Oh nice that means the paperback should be out by now right? Been waiting for that.
 

slider

Member
BlazingDarkness said:
Looks like Murakami's fascination with cats is as strong as ever :D

Perfect! The introdcution of the "talking" cat(s) in Kafka On The Shore(?) was great.

Can't wait for this to hit. Seems a little different from my quick glance at the OP but it seems primed for Murakami's "make the absurd normal".
 
There's a special Limited Edition available if you pre-order with Foyles in the UK
1Q84%20red%20edges-300.jpg

It has the red edging on the pages. This is limited to 1,500 copies
Book 3 LE is also available

I'm probably not going to get this, simply because I'm planning on buying Kindle edition and hardback edition so it'd be too expensive with the LE
 
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