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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
First published in Japanese in 1994-1995 (in 3 books) as ねじまき鳥クロニクル (Nejimakitori Kuronikuru)
Translated into English by Jay Rubin in 1997
Murakami “stayed in Cambridge for two years and was still there in 1994 when the first two volumes of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle were published in Japan. It was from Cambridge that he travelled to Manchuria and Mongolia, and it was in Cambridge that he completed the final volume of the novel…..Writing the Wind-up Bird Chronicle had been a particularly intense experience, he said, to the point of keeping him up all hours and throwing out his routine. He spoke about the sense of impending death that struck him when he turned 40 and his desire to write with full concentration while he still could, be he also spoke about his growing sense of responsibility to Japan.” —Jay Rubin, Murakami and the Music of Words
However, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle does feature a previously published short story within its covers. The short-story collection The Elephant Vanishes contains an essay called “The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women,” which went on to become the opening scene of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Note: If you enjoy audio books, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a winner. The characters of the evil Mr. Ushikawa and 16-year-old May Kasahara are memorable and very well done.