Ten of the best Haruki Murakami books

Matthew Carl Strecher is professor of Japanese language, literature, and culture at Winona State University. He is the author of Dances with Sheep: The Quest for Identity in the Fiction of Haruki Murakami, Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Reader’s Guide, and The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami.

One title on Strecher's list of the ten best Haruki Murakami books, as shared at Publishers Weekly:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

This is another novel that features an “other world,” this time taking the form of a labyrinthine hotel, in which the hero’s wife, Kumiko, is held prisoner by her evil brother, Wataya Noboru. The hero, a mild-manner, unemployed house-husband named Okada Tōru, must find his way into this metaphysical labyrinth, confront Noboru, and rescue Kumiko. Meanwhile, he must also deal with those awkward moments when the coiled springs of time run down, and different historical epochs slam into one another. The work is a study of sex, violence, and collective memories lost and regained.

Read about another book on the list.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is one of Colette McIntyre's eight books every college-bound student should read.

--Marshal Zeringue