It's hard to review a book like this without ruining the beauty and surprise. Murakami captures the reader early with a seeming simplicity that is addictive like fine nectar. I found myself neck deep into the wee hours of the morning for just one more paragraph, then another. Mundane interspersed with weird, philosophical, other realities. I marvel how all the threads came together in the end in an utterly satisfying and thought provoking way. There is no writer quite like Haruki Murakami.

Delighted to include this title in the November edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

A very interesting read. At times it felt like a cross between Ayn Rand’s Anthem and the Miyazaki film Spirited Away. I very much enjoyed the mix of western literary elements with more traditionally Japanese themes and motifs. It is a weird, beautiful, philosophical, and engaging read and I highly recommend it. My only note is that the ending felt a bit abrupt, though not in a way that really did the story much injustice.

Very thought-provoking book. From the beginning, the main character seems to live his life to be with this girl he meets. When she disappears without a word (or a trace), after an idyllic summer together, he spends most of his young adulthood trying to locate her without success. Nearing middle age, alone and depressed, he falls into a hole and wakes up in another place outside time.

Is he alive? Dead and this is the afterlife (and he isn't aware)? I loved the complexities, and questions of how we define reality and existance.

I would absolutely recommend this book to Murakami fans and/or those who are looking for a beautifully written, meandering, dreamy, philosophical kind of book.

That said, I'm not actually a Murakami fan. I was tempted to read this by the idea of an alternate reality, and I could appreciate the beauty and complexity of the story, but in the end I thought, "Hmmm, right. This is why I've never totally enjoyed a Murakami book."

My feeling/experience of the book was more like three stars, but I bumped it to four because it's objectively excellent; it just wasn't engrossing for me personally.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read a digital copy in advance of publication.

It's complex, it's magical, it's weird, it's philosphical. it really is an accumulationof everything that is Murakami. I will be reading this again to get all the nuances and all the subtle elements of the story that i did not catch the first time around. This is an easy read, but a difficult book to grasp. Like all of the authors others books. But the themes present in the City and it's uncertain and very Murakami.

I don't really like to talk about the story because it's better to go in with a clean slate and experience it first hand..spoiler I loved it

Murakami is one of my top three favorite authors. His work has an element to it that is difficult to put your finger on. Why is it you are delivered along so intensely when the writing is very much the opposite?
With 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' I would HIGHLY suggest reading the afterword first. It does not spoil anything for you, but if you have read his other work, specifically Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, that niggling feeling of "I've read this before' is grounded. I knew going in that this novel and the earlier Hard Boiled Wonderland were connected. They are connected in context, space, and ideas. But this is a wholly different book.

There were times while I was reading when I wondered if all of it would ever come together. And yet, at the same time, I didn't really mind if all the strands simply did not connect. They do, very late in the book. This is also, certainly, a work from an older writer. The examinations of time, life, meaning, and loneliness, all come from a place of great experience and understanding.

Any qualms I had during reading were eventually relieved. Murakami has spoken about not always knowing where his books are going until he gets there. So there is disorientation for the reader as well. But have faith with this one, there aren't necessarily answers, but there is clarity.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy of this book.
I was absolutely charmed and captivated by this newest work of Murakami's. It was an interesting mix of components from all of their work, and yet totally fresh and new. It states in the afterword that the basis is a longer story they published early in their writing career, and that it germinated over the past 30+ years and you can really see the growth on the page. It is all here, mysterious caverns, cats, parallel universes and brain functions. Perfect Murakami!
A haunting companion to Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I look forward to reading the new translation of this when it comes out.