Haruki Murakami’s first novel in six years hits shelves in Japan
A new door to Haruki Murakami’s vast and labyrinthine world has opened.
“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” (“Machi to Sono Futashikana Kabe”) hit shelves in Japan on April 13. It’s the first full-length novel in six years from the beloved bestselling author.
The 661-page book follows a narrator into a city with high walls, seeking the “true self” of a crush. Over three parts, the narrator moves from 17 years old to middle age, and the story shifts between reality and a dream-like state.
The title alludes to “the question of whether the wall that separates one’s self from another world is really solid,” Murakami told Kyodo.
Part one of the book reworks a story of the same title from 1980, one that the author roundly rejected and called a failed work. “I had published the story in a half-baked state (in a literary magazine), and regretted it very much,” Murakami said.
But the themes, story and title all stayed with him over the years. “It was stuck, like a fishbone,” he said in an interview with BuzzFeed Japan. “I wasn’t satisfied with the work, but I took a liking to the title.”
The image of a city with a high wall, too, featured in his 1985 novel, “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.” Indeed, some of Murakami’s most iconic works, including “Norwegian Wood” and “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle,” are retooled from old stories. “This is more proof that Murakami writes like a musician: He takes old melodies and rhythms and riffs on them in new ways,” says translator and Japan Times contributor Daniel Morales. Read More…
