The original novel was published in 1982.
A marvelous hybrid of mythology and mystery, A Wild Sheep Chase is the extraordinary literary thriller that launched Haruki Murakami’s international reputation.
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. Quirky and utterly captivating, A Wild Sheep Chase is Murakami at his astounding best.
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What Risingshadow readers think about this book
Love this one - a story which has all the classic Murakami elements, a search, a mysterious girl and surrealism, most strikingly perhaps, in one hell of a strange sheep.
My strongest impression looking back is actually (at first) thinking the ending wasn't as strong as I was expecting, yet I found myself thinking about it often in the days after. So it was exactly what it needed to be.
Definitely worth a read and a really good place to start if new to Murakami.
