A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey & Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls & voracious librarians, John Coltrane & Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story & post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-boiled Wonderland & the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East & West, tragedy & farce, compassion & detachment, slang & philosophy. The result is a wildly inventive fantasy & a meditation on the many uses of the mind.