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Cover of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Fiction · 1998 · R

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

by Haruki Murakami

A man looking for his missing cat finds himself at the center of a vast, hidden mystery — spanning WWII Japan and a modern Tokyo underworld.

A "dreamlike and compelling” tour de force (Chicago Tribune)—an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japan’s forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II. Now with a new introduction by the author. In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and m

For17+GenreFictionLength611 pagesRead time~17.5 hours

This analysis was generated by AI from publicly available reader reviews, literary criticism, and book discussions. It has not been verified by a BookLens community reviewer and may contain errors. Be the first to verify →

Content snapshot

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Very heavy

Extremely graphic torture — a WWII Manchurian sequence depicting a man being skinned alive is among the most violent scenes in literary fiction

Language

Barely any

Mild language

Sexual Content

Some

Adult sexual content

Substance Use

None

No substance use

Emotional Intensity

A lot

Deep psychological themes — identity, the intersection of history and the personal, the nature of evil, the mystery at the center of ordinary life

What this book is about

Murakami's most ambitious novel features deeply disturbing content including graphic torture sequences set in WWII Manchuria — a Soviet officer is skinned alive in visceral detail. The contemporary Tokyo plot involves disappearances, a mysterious well, and violence. Adult sexual content is also present. Adults only.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

Extremely graphic torture (skinning alive)

WWII atrocity sequences

Adult sexual content

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