This title is getting a lot of buzz and despite like Murakami's previous books, I just could not get through this one.

DNF. I actually thought magic realism as a genre had stopped working for me for a moment there. I didn't feel connected to the setting, the protagonist, or the dream-like prose. This is the type of book to get lost into, but only if the author can set it up, which didn't happen since the story was disjointed and we are thrown into it. I will be trying this again when I shake off the feeling of unoriginality that has lately been accompanying Murakami reads.

Book Review: The City, and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, Translated by Philip Gabriel
Published by Knopf, November 19, 2024

★★★★★ (4.5 Stars rounded up!)

"The City, and Its Uncertain Walls" (English version, 2024) by Haruki Murakami, was first published as a 150-page novella in a Japanese literary magazine in 1980, when the author was still running a jazz bar in Tokyo. It was just about that time when Murakami decided to close up shop and be a full-time writer. He remains an aficionado as evidenced by the jazz influence which pleasantly bleeds into his prose.

The rewritten "City" now a 464-page novel crafted by an older and wiser 75-year-old Murakami 45 years after the novella, took three years to write, protracted due to the coronavirus pandemic. He takes the original story from his 1980 "City" novella and fuses in seamlessly the plot of his 1985 novel, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World", as the "Dream Reader", Narrator and enigmatic protagonist of "Hard-Boiled", carries the torch through a Kafkaesque maelstrom to the finale of the rewritten "City" novel.

Simply breathtaking!

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// "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (1985) //

An experiment in the subconscious mind.
The Narrator, a nameless protagonist, is presented as a "human data processor" and rides an elevator underground through the depths of the Tokyo subway to the secret lab of an eccentric old scientist. Eventually, the protagonist receives a special gift from the old scientist.

The skull of a unicorn.

Unicorns. And a town with high walls.
Which leads to a desolate town with a high wall around it, a library without books, a watchtower with a clock without hands, three bridges spanning its lone river, and communal housing. The woods around the town have but one denizen species: unicorns, many of whom die in long winters.

The Dream Reader. His Shadow. And his Love.
It is here where our protagonist morphs into the "Dream Reader", the only position open in the town, where he meets his long-lost teenager girlfriend, the "Librarian", still the 17-year-old she was then. The town is guarded by the "Gatekeeper", and people who are allowed to enter are separated from their own "Shadow". That's right, the "Shadow" is a living, breathing character in these environs, and, severed, becomes a separate but identical person. The Dream Reader's only function is to read old dreams. These are the only items on the shelves of the library without books. It is a world of the protagonist's imagination where "...you'd have to wish your way in". Or fall in through a hole, or climb a river upstream, as it turns out.

The End of the World.
Which leads to that part of the novel which leaves Murakami readers perplexed. The Dream Reader's brain, shuts down, slowly in degrees, locked in his own subconscious. As he parts ways with his own Shadow at the edge of an isolated pool, he meets his own metaphorical end...

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// "The City, and Its Uncertain Walls" (English version, 2024) by Haruki Murakami //

/// "Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change /movement.
Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?”
—Haruki Murakami, 2024, from the book's afterword. ///

Part 1.
The first part of the novel is a reprise of "Hard-Boiled Wonderland", with further elaboration on the multi-dimensional romantic relationship between two Tokyo high school kids, coming of age, who find themselves transported through the ether by their own consciousness into a city with walls, a product of their own creation, where they emerged as the "Dream Reader" and his "Shadow", and the "Librarian". Part 1 goes all through that final pool scene when the Narrator meets his metaphorical end, as he parts ways with his Shadow.

/// "The real me lives there, in that town surrounded by a wall..." ///

Parts 2 & 3.
The Narrator finds himself as a salaryman back in Tokyo, now forty-five-years-old. He resigns from his job as a traveling book distributor and moves from Tokyo to Fukushima (site of Japan's post-tsunami nuclear disaster). His becomes the head librarian in a small town. There he meets and becomes close friends with Mr. Koyasu, the library's colorful former head, a man without a shadow. Who as it turns out, passed away long before the arrival of the narrator. Koyasu, too, knows of the city with uncertain walls. He has a romantic encounter with the lonely owner of a Coffee Shop endlessly playing jazz music, just the right interlude for a Murakami exhibition of fancy jazz tidbits.

It is in the library where he meets a mysterious boy he christens the "Yellow Submarine Boy". A boy who draws for the Narrator a map of the city with uncertain walls, and proceeds to tell him their purpose.
"To prevent an epidemic. A never-ending epidemic", says the Yellow Submarine Boy.

The boy vanishes, "spirited away" in classic Japanese anime fashion. He had wished, with all his heart, to go the city with uncertain walls.

The Narrator follows a river upstream — and gets reunited with the Librarian, still at her 17-year-old self, in the city with uncertain walls. And over the distance, on a bridge, he sees a boy. It is none other than the Yellow Submarine Boy, who now wishes to be the Dream Reader. Their conversation is a soliloquy.

/// "Did you know that? The two of us are nothing more than someone else's shadow.
Yes, that's right. It might sound outlandish, but it isn't.
You and I joined together. Since I am, from the start, you, and you are from the start me.
So you're saying it's no big deal which is the real person and which is the shadow...." ///

Even as the Dream Reader's Shadow, in a most unexpected form, recaptures his own consciousness, as the Narrator, in a single breath, blows his own candle out...

/// "Darkness descended. A darkness deeper than anything, a darkness ever so soft." ///
—Haruki Murakami, 2024, from the book's finale. ///

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Best known for his translations of the works of Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburō Ōe, Haruki Murakami, etal, the Japanese-to-English translation of this book by Philip Gabriel is quite commendable.

There is however, IMHO, a dire need for an English language editor for Murakami's translated books. As with "Aomame’s and Tengo’s" mesmerizing interlude in all 944 pages of Mr. Murakami's enthralling "1Q84" (Eng vers 2009), much can be edited out of this 464-page book, eliminating repetitive passages to render it far more engaging with perhaps at least 100 pages less.

Moreover, though not widely known, Haruki Murakami is a professional translator who has translated the works of many American authors into Japanese, including Raymond Carver, John Irving, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and J. D. Salinger. He credits Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as the inspiration for his career. He could perhaps even do his own English language version editing!

Magnificent prose, maudlin at times with overextended expressions of puppy love.
In many parts, repetitive. — And yet unputdownable!

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley.

This novel was my first of Haruki Murakami’s work, and it certainly won’t be my last. I can definitely see how his writing may be divisive, but personally I’m the type of reader to thoroughly enjoy the weirdness of the dreamlike worlds he created in this story, and I look forward to reading more from him!

As one may imagine with Murakami, it's a little difficult to succinctly summarize the plot, but I'll try my best - the story opens with our nameless main character as a 17-year-old boy who has just fallen in love with a 16-year-old girl. The girl tells him stories about a magical land on the other side of the wall where her "true self" lives, but then mysteriously disappears leaving our main character heartbroken for years to come. We then flash forward to our main character as a middle-aged man who somehow finds his way into the mysterious world beyond the wall, where he finds his past love still as a 16-year-old girl, but she doesn't remember him. Throughout the rest of the pages, we meet some more unique characters, enjoy lots of bookish delightfulness as our main character becomes a small-town librarian, and go back and forth from the world on one side of the wall to the world on the other, to the point that we're almost left wondering which one of those is the "real" world. There are unicorns, libraries of books, libraries of dreams, blueberry muffins, shadows, clocks with no hands, and so much more sprinkled throughout the pages, but trust me - it all just works.

Although I'm usually a reader that needs to completely understand every plot point and every piece of a magic system, I was strangely ok with just going with the flow with this one, just accepting the story as it came to me rather than dwelling on trying to figure out the details. My reading experience felt like how I’d imagine wandering through a cloud might feel - you sort of see where you’re going, but there’s nothing to hold onto as you’re floating along the way. It is a long book and honestly quite a bit quieter and gentler than I was anticipating based on a plot summary with so much magical realism, so there were some times that the pacing felt a little off and things seemed to drag a bit. But overall, I really enjoyed this mystical journey into Murakami's head and loved the vivid world-building that made me feel like I was right in the middle of it.

All in all, I had a wonderful time with The City and Its Uncertain Walls, with all of its eccentricities. It’s about so much, but it felt to me that it ultimately came down to what we think of as “reality”, and how “reality is something you have to choose by yourself, out of several possible alternatives.” Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Haruki Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a novel that captivates with its beautiful language and intriguing concept. Murakami's prose is often poetic, with many passages that are a joy to read. The author's unique style and imaginative ideas shine through, making the book a compelling experience on many levels.

However, while the language and concept are strong points, the story's flow left something to be desired. At times, the narrative felt disjointed, with certain sections becoming repetitive. This disrupted the pacing and made it challenging to stay fully engaged. Additionally, the world-building in some parts of the book felt underdeveloped.

Another aspect that stood out was the portrayal of female characters. Unfortunately, I found the way Murakami writes his female characters to be lacking in depth and nuance. This detracted from the overall experience and left me wanting more well-rounded and realistic portrayals.

In summary, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a novel with beautiful language and a fascinating concept, but it struggles with pacing and world-building. Murakami's portrayal of female characters also leaves room for improvement. Despite these flaws, fans of Murakami's writing style may still find much to appreciate in this book.

In The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Murakami explores the boundaries between reality and the fantastical, echoing the themes of magical realism popularized by Gabriel García Márquez. The city can be seen as a manifestation of the subconscious, full of stories and unfulfilled desires, while the interplay between physicality and shadow suggests that body and consciousness may be inseparable.

Murakami wraps gentle prose around sharp-edged philosophical questions like why imagined worlds can feel more desolate than reality. Although he doesn’t break new ground, he distills his recurring themes of loneliness, aging, and the quest for meaning into a beautifully flowing narrative evocative of Miyazaki. Ultimately, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is an ode to the coexistence of the real and the unreal, and I happily fell into the richness of its landscapes while reflecting on my own.

This was SO intriguing, and right off the bat, the 2nd person POV and writing style pulled me in. Usually, I have a hard time with this POV, but this was executed so well that I wasn't bothered by it.

Since this book is based off of some work he's done in the 1980s, the author expresses his common themes of his--memory, solitude, and the shifting line between reality and fantasy. It had the melancholic atmosphere, magical realism, and the sentiments on youth, loss, and longing.

This might not be for everyone, and I understand the problems people have with it. Overall, solid piece of fiction, but I know it requires a certain taste.

I was intrigued by the ideas, but omg this needed to be edited more tightly. It’s incredibly repetitive, describing the same things over and over and over again.

Also, I felt vindicated when I got to the afterword and found this began as a story he wrote in 1980. Because the whole way through, every time I got bored, I’d think jeez, he’s still writing the same damn story after all these decades. Well, yes and no.

You’d think after all these decades he’d find better use for his female characters.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

DNF because he would not stop talkijg about boobs. I have to review every book I get or my ratio won't hit 100%. Sorry.

An introspective Murakami for the fans, while melancholy has always been a signature element in Haruki Murakami's stories, its dominance in The City and Its Uncertain Walls is unlike anything I've read from him thus far; while it's nothing suffocating or oppressive, it lacks the levity and outright 'weirdness' of his more popular titles.

The whole thing can also be interpreted as a meta retrospective of the author's body of work, considering it is partially based off the same short story that has already been 'remade' once as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, as well as appearances of some of his iconic themes (romantic yearning during youth / middle age), and elements (literature, music, spaghetti, etc.). The magical realism flavor is still present, but takes a backseat with the story's more muted tone and quiet pacing.

I wouldn't recommend newcomers starting with this as their first foray into Haruki Murakami's universe, as the self-referential aspect will be difficult to grasp / appreciate, its leisurely pacing can be testing even for experienced readers (the story can easily be told under 350 pages), and the overall structure a little fragmented and under-told. But for vibes, I sink into The City and Its Uncertain Walls like a cozy, familiar sweater, and I'm left feeling bittersweet as this presents itself like some sort of closure.

Lovely book, deftly told. A fascinating exploration into a fascinating mind. I adore Haruki Murakami and admire his process of creativity.

I've seen a lot of praise for this book, and I've enjoyed the Murakami I've read before so I was hopeful, especially given the premise. There were a lot of parts that were interesting and engaging, and several passages that were so beautifully written I went back and read them again. Ultimately, however, I don't think I enjoyed this book. It felt very disjointed, and while I'm aware more of that was on purpose it just didn't work for me. It felt like in a battle for whimsical magical realism vs pretentiousness, the latter won. I was so engaged with the story of the library and his life with the coffee shop woman that I didn't care at all for the town. I found myself frustrated at the choices the main character made, particularly about the young boy. It was a worthwhile read overall, but I don't think I'd recommend it to just anyone.

I'd also like to take a moment to note that the way he describes and writes about women and their bodies made me extremely uncomfortable, to the point that I almost DNF'd it in Part One.

I really enjoyed this book immensely. I am a fan of Murakami, though I haven't read all his works. When I saw that this was book was "a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for our peculiar times," I couldn't wait to read it because all of these descriptors appeal to me.
It was better than I had even hoped! Not only is it a book I am excited to hand to the avid readers who visit my library and (constantly) ask me what I have read lately that is good, I also think this will be an excellent selection for our book clubs as well.

Thank you to the publisher and to netgalley, I am lucky to be able to read this arc. This is a love letter to magical realism and fantasy. What I recently learned is the story is an expansion of another Murakami short story of the same name, which was published in a 1980 Japanese literary magazine. The City and Its Uncertain Walls is set in a place where there are magical animals and people do not have shadows beginning with two teenage characters. I found the premise so interesting but the plot never materialized. It is a quieter novel with fantastic world building though at times I found myself getting bored. The novel ponders reality and the subconscious using incredible imagery at a slower pace and given it was written during the pandemic I can feel the comfort this novel could bring some readers. Themes of childhood loss, grief and of course loneliness. 3.5* rounded up!

The book is a bit slow going and ended up being a head scratched at the end. I did not feel there was any resolution to the book which made it seem rather pointless.

In similar manner to 1Q84, Murakami bends and twists the lines between past, present, and future. He brought in the idea of parallel universes where one's flesh and bones body and shadow body living different lives. As most of his work, reader needs to walk into this story with an open mind and expect to question his/herself multiple times on which is the real self. As the title suggests, there are metaphysically uncertain walls here and you cannot tell which side you are walking on.

"Standing there alone, I always felt sad, a deep sadness I'd felt before, long, long ago. I remembered that sadness very well. A sadness that can't be explained, that doesn't melt away over time, that quietly leaves invisible wounds, in a place you cannot see. And how can you deal with something you can't see?"

""So you're saying we've left the tree and are in empty space? Where there's nothing to hold on to?" The boy gave a short, hard nod. "Exactly. We're floating in empty space. There's nothing we can grab onto. But we haven't fallen yet. In order to start falling, you need the flow of time. If time is stopped, then we keep on floating there in empty space forever." "And time doesn't exist here in this town." The boy shook his head. "Time exists here. It just has no meaning. Which in the end amounts to the same thing.""

*Full review to be posted closer to publication date**

I have been anticipated a new novel from Haruki Murakami since the minute I finished Killing Commendatore in 2018 and the fact that I was able to read an early copy from NetGalley absolutely made my year. This is very classic Murakami in all the best ways and I had such a wonderful time reading it. There's something about Murakami's writing that always feels comforting and lets me really just sink back into his worlds and writing, and The City and Its Uncertain Walls did just that. I was surprised-yet-not-surprised to find that this book was just as good as previous books and really shows Murakami's ability to craft compelling, intricate characters and include magical realism that makes the story really stand out. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami is the first novel I have read that's written by this author, after reading I understand why so many people enjoy his work. He has a way with words and is great at writing a story that is full of magical realism and emotion. Although I found the pacing to be slow and somewhat drawn out when I reached two-thirds of the way through I felt satisfied with the story as a whole and liked the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel prior to its release date of mid-November, 2024.
What the heck!? I don't know how to explain this book so I'll just shoot out concepts from the novel. Shadows, souls, ghosts, libraries, unrequited love, space and time, memories. Get my drift? This story is all over the place and is often very repetitive. Hopefully, the published edition will have worked out these issues and hopefully a good editor condenses the length by half.
IMO, it is not a good thing when the author needs to offer explanations in the Afterward.

So many major themes are explored here: reality vs imagination and love as a life-long quest are but two. There are only a few major characters and they are so completely drawn that they live on the page. In fact, the entirety of this novel is very visual, from the shadowless town filled with unicorns and picturesque rivers and bridges, to the small mountain town library and its cold winters and hidden head librarian office with its apple wood burning stove. It’s easy to smell the crisp winter air and the herbal teas as they steep. In places it reads like a stream of consciousness novel as the characters mull over what is right, what is real, what should be done. Magical realism definitely plays a role as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.