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Cover of A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

A Wild Sheep Chase

  • 304 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1982
  • 29 editions

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1 About this book

It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company's advertisement. What he doesn't realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences.

Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes our hero from the urban haunts of Tokyo to the remote and snowy mountains of northern Japan, where he confronts not only the mythological sheep, but the confines of tradition and the demons deep within himself.

Good for readers who want: fantasy and a mystery.

  • Fantasy
  • Japan
  • Mystery
  • Adventure
  • Near and far eastern fiction
  • World literature

2 About Haruki Murakami

Born 1949

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹, Murakami Haruki; born January 12 1949) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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