Ratings103
Average rating3.8
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.
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Reviews with the most likes.
What a great and fun introduction to Murakami's works and imaginative world. It drags a little at times, but it's always interesting, odd, and contemplative. Even at its most ridiculous, it is subdued and understated, as if nothing is wrong and weird. And I loved it. It was fun, but not (how do I put it) exciting? Thrilling? So if that's what you want out of a fantastical mystery, this isn'it it. But if you're looking for a fun, quirky book with moments of beauty and profundity that presses into the isolation of the human experience and the temptations of the pursuit for meaning in the midst of absurdity, this just might be it.
Excellent except that the ending underwhelmed me. It's possible that there was something to get that I just missed, but it seemed like he had hit some sort of predefined page limit and was like “Well, time to wrap it up.”
I love the imagination of this author &he kept my interest throughout the book, although it felt at time slike it was taking too long to get to the point. Ending wasn't entirely satisfying
Not the best of Haruki Murakami's that I've read, but enjoyable nevertheless. Ably narrated by Rupert Degas on Audible, the novel is quirky and deep, but not quite as soul soothing as say Kafka on the Shore or 1Q84.