The release date for the English version of 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by
Haruki Murakami is Jan 1997. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
With this magnificently creative work, which is simultaneously a detective narrative, an account of a failing marriage, and an exploration of the long-forgotten mysteries of World War II, Japan's most highly recognized author suddenly soars into the upper echelons of worldwide fiction writers.
A young guy called Toru Okada looks for his wife's lost cat in a suburb of Tokyo. Before long, he is searching a netherworld under the calm surface of Tokyo for his wife as well. As these searches come together, Okada meets a strange cast of friends and foes, including a media-savvy politician, an aging war veteran who has been permanently altered by the horrific things he saw during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria, a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old girl, and a psychic prostitute.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a masterwork on par with Mishima and Pynchon's greatest works, gripping, prescient, and rife with humor and terror.