Knopf Publishing Group
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
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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
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780593801970
EAN:
9780593801970
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
464
Authors:
Haruki Murakami
Publisher:
Knopf Publishing Group
Published Date: 2024-19-11
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I loved this book. Not quite as good as killing commendatore, but close. Murakami's writing just sucks me in and I love it.
This story had elements of another of his tales but with greater development with the protagonist jumping back and forth between different realities. A wonderful tour of impossibilities which is one of the things I enjoy, reading Murakami.
I suppose most of us take our selves to be open minded. It takes one "issue" -- political, economic, emotional, aspirational, personal, national, or whatever pulls at your heart -- and another person that has a conviction opposed to our own, to bring to light the uncertain walls in our own minds. Is that why many in the West are resolute to not discuss politics or religion or money?No matter how tall and seemingly indestructible, let's be glad those walls are uncertain. The question is why are they so tall? Who built them? How did they come about? What is inside and what is outside? Where do we really want to be? Are we free to choose anyhow? What does it take to go to the other side, even if we can't bring down those walls. And why can't we? Wait, maybe we can, why not? And, then, are we really bound by those walls? Who or what bound us?Murakami doesn't answer those questions that matter the most. He doesn't even ask them specifically. But, he hints at them in all kinds of subtle and gently ways masquerading as a love story between two older and awkward teenagers. Losing the beloved, growing up and going on with life and having that brief experience of joy only revisited in the rearview mirror. Not even daring to hope and recover that lost love is itself a parable for life, isn't it? But dare we shall.
Good book
Some may find the story, a bit slow, but I was always anxious to turn the next page. It has elements of a mystery novel, it’s not clear what each thing means or what’s going to happen next. The images of young love are moving and feel very genuine. Still, the context is quite extreme, which for me generated quite a bit of emotion. I love his books, and I love this one more than most.
