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The City and Its Uncertain Walls

A Novel

Audiobook
5 of 9 copies available
5 of 9 copies available
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World comes a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for our peculiar times.
"Haruki Murakami invented 21st-century fiction." —The New York Times • "More than any author since Kafka, Murakami appreciates the genuine strangeness of our real world." —San Francisco Chronicle • "Murakami is masterful." —Los Angeles Times
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he is heartbroken – and determined to find the imaginary town where he suspects she has taken up residence. Thus begins a lifelong search that takes the man into middle age, to a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own, and on a journey between the real world and this otherworld: a shadowless city where unicorns roam and willow trees grow.
There he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together and, as the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he must decide what he is willing to lose.
A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times– and singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
"Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change/movement. Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?” —Haruki Murakami, from the afterword
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 18, 2024
      Bestseller Murakami (Killing Commendatore) unspools an intoxicating fantasy of a parallel world. The unnamed middle-aged narrator recounts how, at 17, he fell in love with a 16-year-old girl who told him of a walled city in which her “real” self lives. At her invitation he wills himself into this world and takes a job as a Dream Reader at a library where the shelves are stocked with dreams, which he describes as “echoes of the minds left behind by real people.” The narrator then loses contact with the girl and the alternate world and embarks on an ordinary life, first as a businessman in Tokyo, then as head of a small library in an unnamed mountainous town. The ingenuity of Murakami’s tale lies in the resonances he establishes between the two worlds through depictions of an assistant librarian who calls to mind the narrator’s youthful girlfriend, a mentor who might be an elderly reflection of the narrator himself, and a 16-year-old boy who forms an obsessive interest in the narrator’s descriptions of the walled city. Even as Murakami forges a bridge between the parallel universes, he artfully preserves the ambiguity at the heart of a question posed by the narrator: “Is this world inside the high brick wall? Or outside it?” It’s an astonishing achievement. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This audiobook defies easy labels, and narrator Brian Nishii is well suited to this type of material. His soft voice assumes an earnest, intense air as he follows the unnamed narrator through an alternate world. The plot is ethereal and fantastical, and the dreamy tone Nishii adopts seems appropriate as the narrator's thoughts meander. Lost love, exiled shadows, dream libraries, and coconut trees--Nishii's gentle, often hesitant, voice strolls among images both realistic and magical. For some, this lengthy performance may be too soft focused and slow. Nishii does a fine job, and it's up to the listener to decide whether the story offers enough in return. For Murakami devotees, this should be an exceptional listening experience, with plenty of sonic space to embrace the meditative. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      March 7, 2025

      Murakami's (Novelist as a Vocation) reflective latest work spans decades and worlds, following a man who is unable to forget his teenage crush and the magical walled city she swore was home to her true self. When he was 17, the man was an outcast who found his perfect match before she vanished. As a middle-aged man, he somehow stumbles into the land the girl described and meets a 16-year-old version of his perfect match. He becomes a Dream Reader, interpreting unicorn skulls in a magical library. When he finds himself in the real world again, he can't face ordinary life, so he flees to the country, becomes a librarian, and finally begins to connect with people. But where is he really meant to be? And can a man live without his shadow? Brian Nishii is the perfect narrator for Murakami's novel, imparting a level of melancholy that precisely matches the unnamed narrator. The character displays a subtle strangeness that remains nearly invisible to the people around him; they might feel it but don't need to comment on it. Nishii audibly conveys this otherworldly sense, nudging listeners to accept every odd element. VERDICT A quietly entrancing epic of disconnectedness, recommended for literary fantasy listeners.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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