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.

Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change and movement. Isn’t this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?

Big thanks to Knopf Publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to read the new Haruki Murakami novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls. Murakami is one of my all time favorite authors. I didn’t start to read his books until about 2006, so there haven’t been too many opportunities to read new books, but I was incredibly excited to read this book since it is his first translated novel since Killing Commendatore in 2018. I’ve read his other more recent collections of stories, essays, and interviews, but there’s something immersive and magical about Murakami’s novels where he is able to craft these kinds of worlds (or maybe underworlds) that serve both as a kind of refuge and a prison, where characters both escape and find themselves lost, both geographically and philosophically. The City and Its Uncertain Walls doesn’t disappoint in fulfilling this element of Murakami’s oeuvre. In fact, while I love the inventive worlds that Murakami crafts and the unique characters that populate these worlds, there’s also some level of familiarity that I seek in Murakami’s writing—there’s bound to be cats, music (jazz, classical and the Beatles), maybe some pasta (or cooking of pasta), and probably some woman who the narrator is attracted to, but is out of reach. Maybe she has disappeared into the fantastical world, or she has lost some element of herself, or she can no longer talk or feel. This book has many of those key elements that I look to check off on my Murakami bingo card. Although these points are all featured in the novel, there’s something different about this one from Murakami’s other novels. I’m a little torn about this, since I’ve recently read some books about musical artists (in particular R.E.M. and MF DOOM) who struggled with fans and markets when they sought to take their music in new directions. I suppose Murakami is kind of in the same dilemma where he has built up a literary reputation and following around his own brand of magical realism that both seeks refuge from and understanding of the modern world. I have always found his stories and characters original, inventive, and engaging, sometimes being drawn in by their oddities.

Murakami ends the novel with an afterword that was helpful to read—I almost wish that I read the afterword to begin. The quote I used above are the final lines he wrote in the afterword, and I think it captures the essence of this book and his own writing as well—I loved thinking that there is ceaseless change and movement in his work, and I can see that. However, we also found out that this book was based on a novella/long short story that was published in 1980, right after his first novel. Murakami goes on to explain that he was never happy with the story, and always wanted to expand the narrative, finding a way to merge the two tales. It never happened the way he wanted, but he used some basic elements of the story to write The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, which is why this book seemed really familiar from the beginning. The tale of the dream reader and the beasts in the town were elements of that same novel. That novel is not one of my favorites, but I did remember some of the parts of it. The other parts of the novel remind me of other Murakami books. For example, the unnamed narrator falls in love with a girl he meets at a writing contest award ceremony when they are in high school. The girl seems quiet and reclusive, although they write letters to one another. At times, she seems like she is not completely there, and mentions how she was unable to get out of bed at one point. We later learn that she may not even be herself in the real world, but rather this might only be her shadow, while her real self is in the City with its uncertain walls, that gradually adjust to keep inhabitants within its walls. The narrator, caring for the girl, wants to go to her, and eventually ends up in the city, forsaking his shadow and piercing his eyes to become a dream reader. The spartan city is cold, and these unforgiving winters bring about the deaths of beasts, unicorn like creatures whose bodies are burnt in a pit. This part of the novel, the first part, reminded me of Norwegian Wood since the narrator sought refuge in a town, following a somewhat depressed and spiritually wounded woman. The town, set apart from reality and offering its inhabitants insights if they give up parts of their selves, also seemed like the sanitarium in Norwegian Wood, but it also reminded me of Mann’s Magic Mountain. It’s as if the world is too much, and there’s a need to escape, to find relief and spend time with a loved one. Murakami writes in his afterward that he started revising and reconceptualizing this novel during the beginning of the pandemic, and maybe that influenced this aspect. I will say that although there are similarities between the first part of the book and some of Murakami’s other work, it wasn’t as fun and joyful (or quirky) as his other novels and stories. Rather, this part of the novel felt much more severe and sparse. The narrator had to give up his shadow, and the ensuring separation proved to enervate the shadow. Similarly, the narrator had little to no interaction with others, and eventually, he realizes he needs to escape this world. I had a hard time getting into this part of the book—it was a little disorienting to me, and as I mentioned, it just wasn’t as fun as some of his other books. There was no music, no other books or writers, no pasta or cats. Only the doomed beasts, who faced either death by cold or a day of brutality to eventually mate.

Thankfully, the book switches gears, and the narrator escapes to live a life in Japan. However, like his earlier experiences as a dream reader, he also becomes dissatisfied with this life, and eventually decides to quit his job to become a librarian. While he’s not exactly sure why he’s developed this calling, he realizes that it’s what he needs to do. With a little help from a colleague, he eventually secures a librarian job in a small mountain town near Fukushima. There’s a really interesting story about this non-public town library, and we learn about its head librarian who helped select the narrator for the job. I grew to enjoy Mr. Koyasu, the mysterious librarian. He is one of the more interesting characters in the book, and he fits in with the kind of magical realism that Murakami often features in his novels. I won’t give too much away about him, but I think that this is also what Murakami was talking about with ceaseless change and movement since I don’t think there are characters who are quite like Koyasu in other Murakami works. Some characters, especially those from Kafka on the Shore reminded me of Koyasu—a kind of spiritual guide or advisor who supports the narrator and helps him make connections with others who are important to his mission. I think, though, part of the challenge for me was not really being aware of what his mission was—was he trying to reunite with the girl? Was he trying to return to the city that he left? Was he trying to regain his dream reader position? The narrator never really lets us know.

I think that this part of the book, the 2nd part that comprises most of the book, was the best part. I really enjoyed the characters in the town, even there aren’t too many. I liked how the narrator eventually took on the librarian job and encountered M***, a seeming savant who devours books and can accurately tell people the day of the week they were born. This character also shares some similarities with other characters from other Murakami works. We eventually meet his family, and I think that their treatment and concern for this character shows a different side of Murakami. Furthermore, M’s role in the book and his quest to learn more about the City raises important questions about inclusion and acceptance. Although I felt bad that M felt like he really didn’t have a place in this library town, it was interesting to see how he felt like the other city might be a refuge where he could become himself. I think that this fits with some of Murakami’s themes and ideas about isolation, escape, and identity in many of his works. The third part of the novel deals with the bond or connection that M and the narrator share. It was interesting, but it is also the shortest section, and Murakami’s afterward helps to shed some light on the narrative challenges that this part of the novel raised. I like what he was trying to do, but some of it was a little strange—the earlobe biting especially. I’m not sure why the earlobes.

The book kind of seemed to end without some resolutions- in particular, the coffee shop proprietor and her relationship with the narrator. In the second part of the book, the narrator discovers a coffee shop with good coffee and great blueberry muffins. They also play jazz, which I was so relieved to come across some music in the novel (M also wears Beatles parkas from Yellow Submarine—which also maybe speaks to his desire to picture himself somewhere else). He eventually has the woman over for some pasta and wine, and while nothing romantic immediately develops, she does seem to be one of the only people he interacts with in this library town. I enjoyed their discussions, and wanted to know more about her condition that prevents their developing a deeper intimacy. I was really hoping for some kind of resolution with her or finding out more about what might happen to her in the town. I also wondered whether the narrator would remain as the head librarian in the town, or if anything might happen to close the town’s library down. Not all novels resolve themselves in neat ways, but I wasn’t completely sold on where the narrator ended up and who he ended up with. It was a thought-provoking ending, and I think with all of the talk about doubles and shadows, there’s a theme about who we are, how we shape our identities, and what really defines us. Is it our jobs? Our hobbies and interests? Is it our relationships and connections to others? For Murakami, these are factors that affect us, but there’s also something more to our selves and our identities—and for his characters in particular, part of the discovery of the self often involves a kind of journey or quest, even if it means traveling from one part of Japan to another and giving up the comfort and stability of a job for something that one is more passionate about.

I ultimately enjoyed this novel, and I feel like it is one that I would like to revisit in a few years. The book is heavy and heady; it is a novel of ideas, with considerable symbolism and meaning beyond the surface. I was able to glean some of the meaning, but I think this would be a good novel for discussion, whether that is in a book club or even in the classroom. I could see this book being part of a curriculum on modernism or post modernism, or even a seminar on Murakami’s work. I would really like to see this book taught in a comparative literature seminar that maybe focuses on some of Murakami’s influences and the discussions center around not just the comparisons of the novels, but rather how Murakami utilizes these influences (and other cultural touchstones) to enact his ending quote of ceaseless change and movement. Although this won’t rank as one of my all time favorite Murakami novels, I really enjoyed the read, and a good Murakami book is still excellent literature. I know that others have criticized his more recent works as not measuring up, but I feel like this is a strong entry into his oeuvre, one that continues to move and change his themes and interests.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

A new Murakami book is a special treat and The City and its Uncertain Walls is a book to savor. The unnamed narrator falls in love as a teenager and together, he and his girlfriend create an imaginary walled city. Cryptically, the girl tells him that her real self is there and then she vanishes from his life. He holds her in a special place in his heart and one day, he wakes up in that walled city. Which is his true reality, his life in our world or in the city?

I’ve been a fan of Murakami for nearly 20 years and he so rarely disappoints; seeing early reviews that said this novel was “very Murakami” had me feeling so excited and it didn’t let me down. His writing is so comforting to me and it felt like being wrapped in a blanket to sink into the slow-paced and meandering style I know so well. Typical Murakami protagonist and a health dose of surrealism. One for the stans.

Murakami's latest didn't quite click for me. The protagonist stayed oddly aloof during the whole story which meant that there was less to root for and the ending felt rather abrupt as if the author had run out of steam. This may sound very negative but Murakami is a great writer so it was still an enjoyable read.

Mixed feelings on this book. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is my favorite Murakami book and one of my favorite books of all time. Based on this, one might think this would be a surefire hit for me. However, while parts of it felt unputdownable, other parts felt meandering and like it didn't contribute to the original mythology. Possibly, this has to do with it being a pandemic novel as it definitely had that feeling for me. He did explain in the afterword that it came from an earlier short story and had been germinating for a while, but unfortunately for me it felt overlong.