The novel is a sub-melodramatic sentimental metafictional love story in a ficticious world with two moons in the sky, a thriller packed with cults, assassinations and grotesque sex (newyorkobserver). The title is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the year 1984 of George Orwell. The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize and placed No. 2 in Amazon.com's top books of the year.
The edition that I read was more than 1100 pages, but I never got tired of reading it, or felt like I needed a break. This is in some ways Murakami’s strangest novel, but it is as fascinatingly readable as any of his work.
