- Hardcover
- Publisher: The Harvill Press (25 Oct 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846555493
- ISBN-13: 978-1846555497
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 6.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 415,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £8.35
Trade in 1Q84: Book 1, 2 and 3 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £8.35, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers . . . But while anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves." --"The New York Times Book Review"
" "
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. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 --"Q is for 'question mark.' A world that bears a question." Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's--"1Q84" is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
" "
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. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 --"Q is for 'question mark.' A world that bears a question." Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's--"1Q84" is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Download
Firstly, can I point out that this is the first of Murakami's works that I have read. I purchased the Audible book through my subscription when this came out in a recommended list, and liked the look of the story. Part way through, I came on here and looked at some of the existing reviews and apparently this is not a great introduction to Murakami's depth and style. It is frequently recommended that "newbies" try Kafka On The Shore. I still found 1Q84 satisfying, and will definitely move on to other works. But if you're finding it a slog, try the recommended alternative.
AUDIBLE-RELEVANT REVIEW CONTENT:
There seems to be mixed to poor opinion of the narration in this from Allison Hiroto, who portays the significant role of Aomame. A lot find that she is too quiet or meek. I am of the opinion that the quiet, calm, measured and precise nature of her voice fits in perfectly with the way the character Aomame is portrayed. She is rarely flustered and always exudes a calm exterior. The narration by Hiroto lends itself to this perfectly, as does the gravelly Mark Boyett for the quasimodo-esque investigator Ushikawa.
GENERAL PLOT AND CHARACTERISATION:
1Q84 is a long, carefully crafted masterpiece of a novel. It is delicate and unique, much like the characters it portrays. The depth of detail is sometimes off-putting, and I can imagine that, were I not forced to hear each word in the unabridged audio edition of this, I would have ended up skimming a lot of it. Do not. There is beauty in the detail. It would seem that a lot of the time Murakami is unnecessarily repeating details and descriptions, but when something in 1Q84 changes, because of this repetition, the reader becomes aware immediately. Almost like a revelation.
It did admittedly become annoying to keep on hearing (or reading) "Do you understand" ... "I think so". They're clearly all very unsure of themselves!
In terms of the characterisation as well, every main character is brutally scrutinised down to the smallest detail.
I was therefore left very annoyed with the lose threads at the end. Not the chrysalis threads - that area of the story was tied up for me neatly. But there were a number of main characters built up that I would have liked some closure on how their stories were completed. Fuka-Eri, for example.
In order to read and enjoy 1Q84 you have to leave a little bit of reality behind before you open the book. There are references in here to, and more than a little nod towards, Alice in Wonderland. If you try to be reality-critical, you will not enjoy this novel. If you do not like thinking behind the story, you will not enjoy this.
1Q84 is essentially a love story. But it is so much more, and so beautiful, that I can ignore its general faults in the repetition and style, and the open endings on some of the characters. I will still read this again, and again, and again.
AUDIBLE-RELEVANT REVIEW CONTENT:
There seems to be mixed to poor opinion of the narration in this from Allison Hiroto, who portays the significant role of Aomame. A lot find that she is too quiet or meek. I am of the opinion that the quiet, calm, measured and precise nature of her voice fits in perfectly with the way the character Aomame is portrayed. She is rarely flustered and always exudes a calm exterior. The narration by Hiroto lends itself to this perfectly, as does the gravelly Mark Boyett for the quasimodo-esque investigator Ushikawa.
GENERAL PLOT AND CHARACTERISATION:
1Q84 is a long, carefully crafted masterpiece of a novel. It is delicate and unique, much like the characters it portrays. The depth of detail is sometimes off-putting, and I can imagine that, were I not forced to hear each word in the unabridged audio edition of this, I would have ended up skimming a lot of it. Do not. There is beauty in the detail. It would seem that a lot of the time Murakami is unnecessarily repeating details and descriptions, but when something in 1Q84 changes, because of this repetition, the reader becomes aware immediately. Almost like a revelation.
It did admittedly become annoying to keep on hearing (or reading) "Do you understand" ... "I think so". They're clearly all very unsure of themselves!
In terms of the characterisation as well, every main character is brutally scrutinised down to the smallest detail.
I was therefore left very annoyed with the lose threads at the end. Not the chrysalis threads - that area of the story was tied up for me neatly. But there were a number of main characters built up that I would have liked some closure on how their stories were completed. Fuka-Eri, for example.
In order to read and enjoy 1Q84 you have to leave a little bit of reality behind before you open the book. There are references in here to, and more than a little nod towards, Alice in Wonderland. If you try to be reality-critical, you will not enjoy this novel. If you do not like thinking behind the story, you will not enjoy this.
1Q84 is essentially a love story. But it is so much more, and so beautiful, that I can ignore its general faults in the repetition and style, and the open endings on some of the characters. I will still read this again, and again, and again.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm a fan of quite a lot of Murakami's earlier work, but I don't consider myself to be uncritically admiring of him - and I've been disappointed by his more recent output ("After Dark" and "Kafka on the Shore" didn't work for me). So I'm pleased to say that IQ84 is something of a return to form as far as I'm concerned, although I have some reservations about it - and if you are new to Murakami, I wouldn't advise you to start with this one. There are plenty of interesting ideas here and I liked the way that all the protagonists find themselves in morally ambiguous territory. That said, I found it was too long - and it was hard to feel entirely satisfied with it at the end. But overall, I'm pleased that Murakami still seems to be able to write fiction which is thought-provoking and ambitious, as I had begun to wonder if he'd gone off the boil.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Every book from now on, has these books to live up to !
I was a bit apprehensive at first, because of the reviews saying that these books were quite complicated to follow, and to perhaps start with one of his other novels.
But, From chapter one I was hooked !
These books have taken over my life for the past few weeks, and yes although they're over 900 pages in total, the chapter to chapter way these books are written, just makes you crave more.
You will only understand this if you have read these books, but I must've looked for 2 moons everytime I went out at night from the time it crops up in the story.
These are really brilliant books, that I can only hope get made into Japanese films (far too good for Hollywood)
I was a bit apprehensive at first, because of the reviews saying that these books were quite complicated to follow, and to perhaps start with one of his other novels.
But, From chapter one I was hooked !
These books have taken over my life for the past few weeks, and yes although they're over 900 pages in total, the chapter to chapter way these books are written, just makes you crave more.
You will only understand this if you have read these books, but I must've looked for 2 moons everytime I went out at night from the time it crops up in the story.
These are really brilliant books, that I can only hope get made into Japanese films (far too good for Hollywood)
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
