Description: Combining the seductions of "Norwegian Wood" with the complex mysteries of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, " here is Murakami at his most intriguing, mystifying, and satisfying. In an urbane Japan of jazz bars, Jack Kerouac, and the Beatles, a college student, falls in love with Summire. But her devotion to an untidy writerly life precludes any personal commitments.
Review Quotes: "Grabs you from its opening lines. . . . [Murakami's] never written anything more openly emotional." --Los Angeles Magazine
"Murakami is a genius." --Chicago Tribune "Murakami has an unmatched gift for turning psychological metaphors into uncanny narratives." -The New York Times Book Review "An agonizing, sweet story about the power and the pain of love. . . . Immensely deepened by perfect little images that leave much to be filled in by the reader's heart or eye." -The Baltimore Sun "[Murakami belongs] in the topmost rank of writers of international stature." -Newsday "Murakami's true achievement lies in the humor and vision he brings to even the most despairing moments." -The New Yorker "Perhaps better than any contemporary writer, [Murakami] captures and lays bare the raw human emotion of longing." -BookPage "Murakami . . . has a deep interest in the alienation of self, which lifts [Sputnik Sweetheart] into both fantasy and philosophy." -San Francisco Chronicle "Not just a great Japanese writer but a great writer, period." -Los Angeles Times Book Review