A Wild Sheep Chase

Author: Haruki Murakami

Alternate cover edition here.His life was like a recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them….Read More

17 Books Similar to A Wild Sheep Chase

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Alternate cover edition here.'A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story… Continue Reading Posted in: Authors, Japan Tokyo, Japanese, Japanese Fiction (English)

Coin Locker Babies

A surreal coming-of-age tale that establishes Ryu Murakami as one of the most inventive young writers in the world today. Abandoned at birth in adjacent train station lockers, two troubled… Continue Reading Posted in: Abandoned Children, Bildungsromans, Suspense Thrillers

Dance Dance Dance

Alternate cover edition here.High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A… Continue Reading Posted in: Identity (Psychology), International Mystery & Crime, Japan, Magical Realism, Prostitutes

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Alternate cover edition here.Toru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls… Continue Reading Posted in: Japanese Fiction Heisei Period, Japanese Fiction Translations Into English, Man Woman Relationships

The Silent Cry

Two brothers, Takashi and Mitsu, return from Tokyo to the village of their childhood. The selling of their family home leads them to an inescapable confrontation with their family history.… Continue Reading Posted in: 1945, Contemporary Literary Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Japanese Fiction

Kitchen

Kitchen juxtaposes two tales about mothers, transsexuality, bereavement, kitchens, love and tragedy in contemporary Japan. It is a startlingly original first work by Japan's brightest young literary star and is… Continue Reading Posted in: 1964, 20th Century, Banana, Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Japanese Literature, Yoshimoto

Norwegian Wood

Alternate cover edition here.When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost… Continue Reading Posted in: Nineteen Sixties, Novels Japan 1987 Translations, Paperbacks England 2012

In The Miso Soup

It's just before New Year. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank's behaviour… Continue Reading Posted in: Asian Literary History & Criticism, Murder, Paperbacks England 2006, Suspense Fiction

Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt

A literary sensation published to outstanding accolades in America and around the world, Lord of the Barnyard was one of the most auspicious fiction debuts of recent years. Now available… Continue Reading Posted in: American Fiction, American Literature, Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Middle West, Rural Conditions

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Alternate cover edition here.Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an… Continue Reading Posted in: Businessmen, Chinese Fiction, Literary Short Stories, Love Stories, Psychological Literary Fiction

Lying on the Couch

From the bestselling author of Love's Executioner and When Nietzsche Wept comes a provocative exploration of the unusual relationships three therapists form with their patients. Seymour is a therapist of… Continue Reading Posted in: Psychological Fiction, Therapist And Patient

1Q84

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.… Continue Reading Posted in: Assassins, Japan, Translations Into English

Sputnik Sweetheart

alternate cover can be found hereSumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses… Continue Reading Posted in: Lesbianism, Love Stories, Women Novelists

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one… Continue Reading Posted in: Japanese Fiction, Vietnamese Fiction

Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape… Continue Reading Posted in: Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Novels Japan 2002 Translations, Paperbacks England 2012, Self Actualization (Psychology), Surrealist Literary Criticism

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

A New York Times and Washington Post notable book, and one of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's best books of the… Continue Reading Posted in: Europe, Fiction, Text

Leave a Reply