In Haruki Murakami`s increasingly surreal canon of work, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is probably his most popular & widely read text. It resonates with contemporary Japan, exploring responsibility for both the past & the present, & also the effects of alienation & isolation; as usual though, Murakami goes about this by making some of the most mundane everyday moments unconventional, viewing them with a lyrical wit that can only be described as surreal &, at times, morbidly comic. Toru Okada`s cat has disappeared & this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada`s vague & blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz & opera & drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, & he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. At first seemingly a mixture of different threads, Murakami slowly weaves them into a novel of considerable depth, exploring in particular detail how Japan of the late 20th century reconciles with & bears responsibility for Japan of the early 20th century, something that even Western authors seem tentative to do. Touching, humorous, witty & dark, view the world of emotions in a lyrically unconventional way: through the mind of Haruki Murakami.