a slow, withholding, uneventful, challenging read about childhood and memory, dreaming and nostalgia, introversion and success, love and humanity.

Thank you Knopf and NetGalley for the eARC of The City and Its Uncertain Walls! All opinions in this review are my own.

This was my first book by Haruki Murakami and I can see why so many people like him. Murakami's writing is beautiful as he weaves deep stories about people, their grief, and relationships to each other. The slow pace coupled with the short chapters makes this an excellent read to curl up with on a cold winter day.

The Afterword reveals that this was a novel long in the making and Murakami explains the structure of the story.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a story that stays with you and I will be thinking about it for a long time.

I'm a Murakami newbie and I feel ill-equipped to even try to put my review of The City and Its Uncertain Walls into words.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls is about a middle-aged man who is still hung up on the woman he loved as a teenager. Despite their plans for the future, she leaves him behind always wondering what could have been. He finally decides to journey to the city behind the wall that she always spoke of and finds her there, still 16, working in a library. The rest of the story, honestly, I don't think I could do justice by describing. It was thoughtful, entertaining, and left me thinking of it long after I finished. I am eager to pick up Hardboiled Wonderland, which I now know is the sister story to this (Which was originally a novella published in 1980).

In "The City and Its Uncertain Walls," Haruki Murakami expertly weaves a tapestry of magical realism and introspection, inviting readers to explore the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Through three interconnected stories, Murakami delves into themes of love, identity, and the human condition.

The characters, caught between their everyday lives and an otherworldly realm, embark on philosophical journeys filled with symbolism and unexpected encounters. Murakami's atmospheric storytelling transports readers into a world where walls shift, and realities blur.
Familiar elements such as melancholic young lovers, enigmatic cats, and allusions to music and literature will delight fans of Murakami's previous works. While some may argue that the author revisits well-trodden themes, "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" stands as a testament to Murakami's distinct narrative voice.

This novel offers a captivating and thought-provoking read for Murakami enthusiasts and serves as an ideal entry point for those new to his enchanting blend of magical realism and introspection.

Haruki Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls is an exploration of love, loss, and identity, set against the backdrop of a mysterious walled city where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred. I probably should not admit this as a former English major, but this was actually my first book by Murakami, and I can see why so many readers and critics alike extol the author's virtues.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

A haunting tale reminiscent of 1Q84 in the very best of ways. Reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro at his best, with something of a more tragic overtone.

This story was far more than I expected and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it over the weekend. Haruki creates two vastly different settings that merge and overlap throughout the story. The characters have depth and flaws that make them easily relatable and I found myself truly caring for their wellbeing. The magical realism is at the same time slight and all-consuming. I love how unique the story is, centered on a person’s shadow and what would happen if it becomes separated from its person. There is an undercurrent of a love story but, to me, that wasn’t the main focus. This is a story about finding your true self no matter what may be happening in the world around you.
Brian Nishii did a wonderful job building the atmosphere and making these characters come to life! I was completely entranced with the story because of his impeccable delivery. This is another book I’d suggest listening to if you’re a fan of audiobooks.

A thought-provoking and thoughtful story. Murakami writes fantastic stories that are both out of this world and incredibly introspective. Many of his trademark characteristic motifs and symbols return. This story explores the human condition in a very profound and personal way. I wonder if some of the finer nuances and details were lost in the translation. Unfortunately, I do not speak or read Japanese so I’ll have to see what other reviews who do speak the original language think.

I feel bad saying this but I hated this book. I could barely get through any of it and I DNF it early on. I really try not to but it was in second person and just really weird. I was excited to try this authors work and I was very disappointed.

I struggled with most of this book. It felt very aimless for most of the story and while I enjoyed hearing about the walled city, the long sections of daily work at the library were hard for me to get through. I did enjoy the end and felt that it was a satisfying conclusion.

This was an intensely nostalgic read for me. I first read 1985’s ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ nearly 20 years ago as a college student. It is one of my all-time favorite books. In his newest book, Murakami revisits that library in a town surrounded by a wall where clocks have no hands. You will also visit a new library in a new town, this one filled with books instead of dreams. But it is still a library in a nameless town with a river running through it. What is reality, anyways?

The first part of this book includes descriptions repeated nearly word for word from HBW. But this is no HBW. Repetition and routine are major themes. It made me consider my routines. What would the 19-year old me who read HBW think of my life now? Has my view of reality changed? Has what fulfills me changed? Am I still searching for the same thing? Have I settled? Am I simply waiting? Waiting is another motif in this book. Repeat, wait, repeat.

I apologize to the publisher for my inability to write a traditional review. But maybe that’s okay - good art is, ultimately, something that should touch your soul. And I’ve spent the last week confronting a staggering number of emotions brought to the surface while reading this book. So much grief for the girl I was, and for all the pain she carried.

It’s possible this book just instigated a midlife crisis. I’d like to think Murakami would be pleased.

3.5 rounded to 4
It has been a while since I last read a Murakami novel and I forgot how unusual his writing style is. I always find his books hard to explain, and The City and Its Uncertain Walls is no exception. This story focuses on two parallel stories, all revolving around one man and the love he lost when he was 17. The City and Its Uncertain Walls is beautifully written but often confusing. It is one that I would definitely recommend to anyone who is a fan of Murakami's previous books. I would say that it is a very slow-paced book that would be best read when in the mood for something reflective. Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for providing me with an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

The story begins with two teenagers in love, with the boy searching for the girl that he believes is his lost love. The author creates a really interesting world where a Gatekeeper decides who can enter and who can be left behind. Then, he begins to analyze his dreams and what they might be telling him. This causes him to leave Tokyo for a smaller town, where he becomes the head Librarian. Again, I love the world created where the author explores dreams and premonitions but the book lacked a plot and did not hold my attention very well. However, I acknowledge how popular this author is and I am still interested in checking out his other books.

I'll confess, I am a mega-fan of Haruki Murakami and have ready just about everything he has written. This was one work I did not know. It is actually a reworking of an early story he wrote and published decades ago. He was not satisfied with the original version and decided it was something to which he wanted to return. This work is mature Murakami at its best. As with all his novels, this work is difficult to summarize. The story begins with a young high schooler who with minimal social ties who meets and falls in love with another mysterious high schooler who is much like himself. Their connection is deep and she suddenly disappears, leaving him unable to form subsequent meaningful romantic attachments. They had together created an imaginary world, a city with ever wavering walls from which no one exits and very few enter. It is a bleak place, without music or animated life--a place where people have no shadows. The book entails a parallel set of stories, one set in this world and the other set in that other imagined city. The book kept me up until the wee hours of the AM as the story is engaging and flows. The writing, as with all Murakami is engaging with a strong undercurrent of magical realism. Highly recommended, especially for Murakami fans.

Even though the walls of the city were uncertain, I was only a few chapters into this book when I became certain this was a book about death, and I guess, in a way, it was, but I finished the book with more questions than when I started.

The first several chapters were so boring to me, and I didn’t love the formatting of the book (“I was this and you were that, and I did this for you and etc, etc”). It’s not so much that it was written in first-person, but more so that it was so bland and oddly impersonal. I needed names and faces, but this was more like a letter for the first third-ish of the book, and I didn’t love it.

I also tended to find the story within the walls to be so slow and uninteresting.

What I did enjoy was the time that the main character moved to the small mountain town and the life he began to build there. I enjoyed that story as one within itself.

But I’m still wondering about the ending of the book and what I knew to be real and what was possibly revealed at the end, which I’m not sure I fully understand myself (where the same person? If this is death, how can he be both young and old?).

This feels like the kind of book one might analyze for a literature course, which is cool, but also makes me overthink and feel a little overwhelmed with the text. The entire thing was one big metaphor, which may make this a literary masterpiece for some, but for me, it was quite slow and a bit confusing.

This has become my new favorite Murakami. Based on a short story he wrote 35 years ago he spent 2 years reworking it as he had more to tell. Letting this sit in his mind for decades really showed. It's so elegantly crafted and poignantly told, I could not get enough of this story and already look forward to picking it up and reading it all over again.

I did not know this book was tied to Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World before reading it. You can still read this if you haven’t read Hard-Boiled (the stories are parallel rather than interconnected). In fact, it may be better to read one or the other instead of both, because the two stories are very similar. At least, this book is similar to the second part of Hard-Boiled.

It’s hard for me to fairly review this because it’s so much like the other book. As difficult a time as I had wrapping my head around Hard-Boiled, I ended up loving how the book addresses mortality and grief. This book does address some of the same themes, as well as an obsession with lost love and the past. I just didn’t enjoy it as much.

Since it’s Haruki Murakami, there are cats, people falling into abandoned wells, and lots of talk about music. Also, yet another inscrutable woman (I honestly think Murakami finds the unicorns less mysterious).

If you love Murakami, this is him. Just be aware that it’s pretty redundant.

Murakami's latest novel felt like drinking a hot cup of tea after a long day. The City and Its Uncertain Walls will read like a warm blanket for fans of Murakami - comfortable and familiar - and for new readers, will be thought-provoking enough to hopefully read the rest of Murakami's cannon.

Haruki Murakami does it again! This one was a little low key, like most of his other works. It was also at times disjointed. However, the quiet descriptions and the calm vibes were helpful to me after a long work day.

This was my first time reading Murakami. I quite enjoyed the writing style of the novel and found it very relaxing to read. I thought the pacing was consistent and it kept my attention the entire time. However I felt a little disappointed at the end as it didn’t feel as wrapped up and connected as I hoped. Overall it was a very thought provoking novel and I plan to read more of his work.