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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel / Tr. [from Japanese] by Alfred Birnbaum.
 
 
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel / Tr. [from Japanese] by Alfred Birnbaum. (Hardcover)

by Murakami (Author), Alfred Birnbaum (Translator) "THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent ..." (more)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd (Sep 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 4770015445
  • ISBN-13: 978-4770015440
  • Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,345,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Review
"The simplistic and beautiful way in which he can evoke dreamlike landscapes, situations and emotions is outstanding." --AU, March 2009 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
This is 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 and post modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is the tour de force that expanced Haruki Murakami's international following, tracking one man's descent into the kafkaesque underworld farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy. The result is a wildly inventive fantasy and a meditation on the many uses of the mind. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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First Sentence
THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

38 Reviews
5 star:
 (26)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (38 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, 4 Aug 2003
By Ms. Aa Robson "bobsafish" (Middlesbrough) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)
This is a beautiful book written in Murakami's usual lyrical style that brilliantly conveys the depths and complexities of the human consciousness. It is best described as a combination of genres, including fantasy, science-fiction and detective story, but really it is about one man's journey of self-discovery when he learns that the End of the World is near.

Murakami easily combines two stories that are full of surprises and compliment each other perfectly as the book progresses. The alternating chapters make the book easy to read and they also prove Murakami to be a skilled storyteller, as he so cleverly narrates two parallel tales. His characters are a group of striking individuals that seem at once fantastical and very real. Murakami's descriptions of a man evaluating his life and musing on what he has lost are engrossing and interesting, as well as fresh and inspired.

I loved this book and couldn't wait to start reading it again each time I put it down. I chose this book after having read another novel, Norweigan Wood, by the same author. Having read and truly loved both novels I would recommend Murakami as a brilliant and poetic storyteller with a fantastic imagination. This book is something different and definitely worth reading, even if it's not your normal type of thing!

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Two alternative universes for the price of one, 1 Mar 2006
By Mr. Paul J. Bradshaw (Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)
This is the fourth or fifth Murakami book I've read, and quite easily the best after Norwegian Wood.

The book switches between two stories: a wonderfully curious and imaginative adventure through an alternative future-now Japan (Hard-Boiled Wonderland); and a mysterious exploration of a walled old city (the End of the World). The two stories eventually connect in a way that causes a wonderful collision of thoughts and questions in the reader's mind, but I won't give anything away by saying anything more.

Like all good dystopias, this is thoroughly well thought-through and researched; Kafkaesque comes to mind, as does Alice in Wonderland. But this is married with Murakami's postmodernist bent and a feeling that he's having as much fun as you are. Very enjoyable, totally escapist, and you'll want to dive back into this world once you've left it.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dreamscapes, 26 Feb 2007
By L. Cato (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)
This book is likely to have a profound effect on anyone that reads it. There are some dreams that have a bleakness about them, a sense of jepoardy and emptiness that carries right through to the next day. You wake feeling detached from the real world and sit for hours lost in your own thoughts. This book taps into that universal feeling, that world sadness that washes over us from time to time.

Murakami manages to draw you into a place that is so different from the mundane routines we inhabit and yet so familiar. This book is compelling, it is complex, it is the human psyche turned into a story. It is, above all, an amazing novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The end of the world
Definitely an interesting read, with a strange hybrid of contemporary 21st Century life and a good twist... Read more
Published 7 days ago by N. Hardy

5.0 out of 5 stars Far from hard-boiled
I just can't get enough of Murakami's dreamy and nebulous prose. This is one of my favourite novels of his, and I adore the way he throws in references to popular culture, whilst... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Binro The Heretic

5.0 out of 5 stars A bit hard to get into, but in the end... lovely.
My husband gave me this book and Norwegian Wood as a gift when we first started dating. He said Hardboiled Wonderland was one of his favourite books of all time, and I had to... Read more
Published 6 months ago by G. Cseh

5.0 out of 5 stars hard boiled excellence

What a superb novel- This book lives on in your mind, it has a life outside the pages. Great characters who seem to have so much more to offer than their descriptions.. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jonathan Hawes

3.0 out of 5 stars Wry humour in a dying fall
This early novel stands halfway between the silliness of A Wild Sheep Chase and the heart-gripping humanity of Norwegian Wood. Read more
Published 10 months ago by John Lynham

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
This is the first Murakami book I've read and I felt compelled to review it afterwards, as it thoroughly engrossed and compelled me. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ms. Hr Jackson

5.0 out of 5 stars Unicorns at the end of the world
Imagine if Raymond Chandler had collaborated with David Lynch, maybe with Philip K. Dick throwing in a few cents every now and then. Read more
Published 15 months ago by E. A Solinas

3.0 out of 5 stars Forced
Having read, and enjoyed The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami, I was expecting something equally as good from this book, but I was rather disappointed. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Iivex Elucid

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
This a really interesting book. Murakami has a very distinct style, mixing lyrical prose with deeper philosophical ideas. Read more
Published 21 months ago by B. Wright

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Boiled Wonderland - Murakami
I've just finished this book, and i was hugely impressed with yet another slice of the immensley talented murakami's work. Read more
Published 23 months ago by reedydeluxe

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