A Blog Hop and Murakami

 I haven't joined the Crazy-For-Books blog hop for ages so I thought I'd partake today. Jennifer's question is:

"What 2011 summer release are you most looking forward to?"

I had a quick answer to this question however it's not really a summer release but an autumn one. October 25th to be exact. The cool thing is I can pre-order a Kindle edition and have it delivered on the exact date.  Hands down, the book to look forward to this year is IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. Hailed as the author's magnum opus and already a big hit in his native Japan, the trilogy will be published as a 1000-page volume, translated by Harvard professor Jay Rubin. Will Murakami finally win the Nobel Prize with this novel?

From the Guardian UK:

True to form, the story features a surreal narrative and enigmatic characters, including Aomame, a 30-year-old woman whose name means "Green Bean". Aomame – who wanders into a form of parallel reality early in the novel, which she detects by observing minute differences in the physical world around her – commits a series of murders for reasons that are at first obscure. She reflects on this violence in the book with a humorous blandness, visible in a quotation from the Japan Times review:

"If I had not been born with this last name, I wonder if my life would have taken a different shape. For example, if I had a common name like Sato, Tanaka or Suzuki, I might lead a bit more of a relaxed life and look upon the world with a bit more of a magnanimous eye."

Exploring the themes of cult religions, family ties, writing and love, 1Q84 is said to be the story of two characters, a man and a woman, in search of one another. The narrative moves between Aomame's story and that of Tengo, a mathematics tutor with – typically for male characters in Murakami novels – a generally unsuccessful life. Tengo gets involved in an agreement to rewrite on the sly an imperfect novel about a community of little people entered by a teenager for a literary prize. But as the project advances, Tengo realises the dyslexic young girl has not written the novel at all. Growing increasingly uneasy, he finds out more about her past and her childhood days in the commune of Takashima.

October seems a long way away but meanwhile Murakami fans can finally watch a film version of one of his best books.Norwegian Wood was released in Japan last March. I'd love to reread this book though before seeing the film. You can see the trailer (with subtitles) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqiYXmpb41I