1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Harvill Secker

Pages: 925pgs

The Story

This edition contains Book One, Book Two, and Book Three.

The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.

Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a standstill, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.

Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?

Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.

The Review

The author, Haruki Murakami, has become an international bestseller for his novel 1Q84 and it's no wonder why this is so true, and why so many other readers have raved about it endlessly and recommended to me. This book right here in my greedy little hands is the weirdest, the oddest, the most-confusing but equally as brilliant and unique than anything else I've read before, and when combining those elements together. . . it has ultimately created one of the best pieces of literature I've ever read in my entire life and it will certainly not be the last piece of work I'll read of Murakami's because he's amazing and it was mind-blowing to be honest!

In my hardcover edition of 1Q84 it contains the complete set of books 1-3, so I won't giveaway any specific details about the book, only about the amazeballs of the storyline and everything inside of it. If you've ever seen this book in person or have checked the page count, comparing it to the Harry Potter length and weight, this is an immensely long and heavy book, and probably the longest I've ever read for an adult book! While that may overwhelm readers at the beginning and may you think "Hell no!" but trust me here folks . . . it's well worth reading the three volumes all in one and will leave you speechless.

Now I wouldn't be the only person that will find it hard to explain this particular book to you - so my readers can understand what exactly is going on - and everything twisty and confusing in it, so I'll try and do my best to sum it up in one paragraph. Okay here goes nothing. In the book of 1Q84, the story is set in 1984 where Tokyo is split into two different parts and is told through dual perspective. One part follows Aomame, a young woman who is involved with some serious dubious secret work which will be later revealed in the book whereas the other main character, the other half of the story in which it is told by, is an average young man named Tengo who is a teacher and an unpublished author whom finds himself captivated by a seventeen-year-old girl's novel which ends up having a unusual effect on him and opens up plenty of secrets of his own world around him.

While this book is nothing like anything else that I've read before, I think the main contributing factor to this realisation of mine (you know being officially 'mind-blown') was all due to Murakami's writing within itself. The author possesses this somewhat strange, unnatural and rare gift of knowing how and when to use his suspenseful storytelling at the exact right times and never did I find myself distracted - not even once and not even by the book's length. There was also just something really Japanese about it (an obvious one since the author is japanese himself) and there was something so surreal about the book's own world which I guess captivated me even more, and gave me more reason to continue with it. But it wasn't just those parts that I loved, it was also the structure and how the author layered it out for his readers . . . the language he uses . . . the characters he writes down onto paper . . . the way he shortens chapters to only give you an excuse to keep turning those damn pages . . . and it was needless to say such a brilliant concept and even if the book wasn't as fast-paced like one would hope for, but there's honestly nothing bad I could say about this book except that now it's over and I'm left empty handed. So well done to the author to force me in praising up this highly acclaimed novel because it's pure perfection!

Overall, if you haven't heard of this book, if you haven't considered picking it up, or if you're really looking for the need to be weirded out by true greatness, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you - all three of the books in fact - within a heartbeat. Not only does this book make you laugh, cry, ponder and question every single little detail and action and twist-turn the author writes at the most unexpected times . . . it's a truly amazing piece of adult literature and no wonder why it was a big hit despite its critics! LOVED IT!

The Rating

5/5 stars