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A collection of off-the-wall short stories by Japan’s leading contemporary novelist. An elephant vanishes; hunger drives a couple to rob McDonalds; an insomniac wife wakes in a different world. Murakami is a cult figure throughout the world with an increasing reputation.
The Wind Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women
The Wind Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women
I wash up plate and pans while boiling a kettle...
‘Easy’ I say ‘now hold on just one minute.’
I go to the kitchen for that drink of water...
At twelve-thirty I go out shopping as usual...
‘I’m in bed right now,’ the woman says...
A little before two o’ clock...
The homes that sandwich the passage are of two distinct...
I turn around to look behind me, and there, in the yard...
I open the gate and step in, following the girl...
The girl gets up from her deckchair and disappears...
For the time being there isn’t a sound...
I awake to find I’m alone
The Second Bakery Attack
The Second Bakery Attack
‘I once attacked a bakery. Long time ago.’
Of course, it wasn’t true that nothing had happened...
The Second Bakery Attack (continued)
Altogether there were three McDonald’s workers
The Kangaroo Communiqué
The Kangaroo Communiqué
Actually I started to write you a letter...
Still and all, this imperfection business...
Let us now address the topic of sex
Let me say a little more about myself...
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning
Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said...
Sleep
Sleep
In any case, what I have now is nothing like that...
He drives his Sentra out of the condo parking garage...
After I’ve had my swim, I use the rest of my afternoon...
I remember with perfect clarity that first night...
I got out of bed and went into the bathroom
I shook my head. Stop thinking, I told myself
Sleep (continued)
I went back to the sofa and started reading...
While I cleared the table, my husband sat on the sofa...
At ten o’clock, I got into my bed...
And so a week went by
One afternoon I went to the library and read...
Now my inability to sleep ceased to frighten me...
One time I stood and stared at my sleeping husband’s face...
I left the bedroom and went back to the living room...
I’m taking off my pyjamas and putting on jeans...
The Fall of the Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler’s Invasion of Poland (...)
The Fall of the Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler’s Invasion of Poland, And The Realm of Raging Winds
2. The 1881 Indian Uprising
3. Hitler’s Invasion of Poland
4. And the Realm of Raging Winds
Lederhosen
Lederhosen
‘They weren’t really shorts,’ she says
The shop that sold the lederhosen was in a small town...
She – the daughter who’s telling me this story...
Barn Burning
Barn Burning
Barn Burning (continued)
Thereafter I met up with the guy a number of times...
Midway through the feast, having polished off the wine...
‘I’d like to hear about this barn thing,’ I said
I nodded. Just how was I to accept this at face value?
The following day, I went to a bookstore...
The next time I met the guy was in the middle of December...
The Little Green Monster
The Little Green Monster
Of course not, it said to me, cocking its head
Family Affair
Family Affair
Why had her attitude toward me changed so much...
I had started living with my sister five years earlier...
Then she showed me his picture
Finally though, I had no choice but to meet...
The day after the spaghetti argument with my sister...
My sister woke me at eight o'clock on Sunday morning
Family Affair (continued)
When dinner was over, we moved to the living room for coffee
It was after midnight by the time I got home
A Window
A Window
I kept this part-time job going for a year
Hamburger steak. I did actually have the opportunity to eat...
TV People
TV People
There were three of them altogether. They don’t knock...
Everything gets removed from the sideboard to make room...
Curiously, the wife makes no mention of the appearance...
I wake at half past two in the morning to find the TV...
At work, the day is solid with meetings from the morning on
At one of the afternoon meetings, I see TV people again
When I get home from work, the apartment is dark...
I dream about a meeting. I’m standing up...
The two TV people on the screen keep working away
The two TV people in the television continue building...
A Slow Boat to China
A Slow Boat to China
2. There was an elementary school for Chinese up the hill...
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the procter...
3. The town where I went to high school was a port town...
Where we worked was a tiny, dark, small-time...
When we’d finally danced ourselves out, we left...
It was ten after eleven when she finally got off...
4. Now the story of my third Chinese
His coffee arrived and he drank it slowly
Suddenly there was a click in my head
5. Supposing I found myself chasing another fly ball...
The Dancing Dwarf
The Dancing Dwarf
I woke up alone. Facedown in bed...
My partner and I in the ear shop like the second approach
As soon as the bell rang at quitting time...
The old man went on to tell me how the dwarf had arrived...
I didn’t dream about the dwarf again
The Dancing Dwarf (continued)
That night, the dwarf came into my dream again...
The dwarf used the branch to draw a number of vertical lines...
The dance hall stood by the main factory gate...
We left the dance hall and walked along the river
Now I knew what I had to do
The Last Lawn of the Afternoon
The Last Lawn of the Afternoon
At eighteen or nineteen I mowed lawns...
The whole week went past before it struck me
Clear weather three days in a row, then one day of rain...
I pulled the van to a stop in front of the appointed house...
I went to the van, took out the electric mower, grass clippers...
At twelve-thirty I returned to the lawn
The interior of the house was just as deathly quiet as before
The woman sat her middle-aged bulk down on the bed...
I returned to my chair and lit up a brand-new cigarette
We went back down the same staircase...
The Silence
The Silence
After the first few months, Ozawa’s interest in boxing...
‘In almost every way, Aoki and I were polar opposites.’
‘That afternoon, Aoki didn’t show up in class.’
‘Anyway, during summer vacation a terrible thing happened.’
’Immediately, I knew Aoki was behind this.’
‘My first hint of a reprieve came a month later.’
At that, Ozawa let out a big sigh
The Elephant Vanishes
The Elephant Vanishes
I had had my own private interest in the elephant problem...
On its right rear leg, the elephant wore a solid...
And so a year went by
The mayor had held a news conference...
I met her near the end of September
She was unmarried and so was I
It was no use: I’d have to tell her the story
In fact, I had wondered at the time whether my eyes...
The Wind Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women