I had no idea and expectations on what this book was about when I bought it. I have never seen anyone talk about it, at least, not anywhere on bookstagram. But I wanted to give it a try since it is Murakami's book. And I am glad that I did. I was blown away totally. It is underrated tbh.
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So this story has two sides. One is about a girl named Mari sitting in a restaurant at night and reading a big book. There a guy appears and strikes up a conversation with her. And the story starts there. (This is written in 3rd person)
And on the other side, it is Mari's sister named Eri is sleeping on her bed and some weird things start happening there. (This is written in second person)
I don't want to tell anything more. The less it is said is better.
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Not every author can pull of second person narrative but this one was awesome. It was more vivid and weird. He has combined contemporary with magical realism. This book didn't have all the Murakami elements we usually tick off but it did felt like a Murakami in a different way. And to me, it felt like a short version of 1Q84 and Norwegian wood mixed up together. It kind of synced with them. I am not sure if others would feel that way though. But this was really good. And this is the only Murakami book so far that I would recommend to underaged people. It didn't have any explicit adult contents like his other books usually have. And no surprise, it is one of my favourites now.
Trigger warning: 1. Physical abuse. 2. If you are that kind of person who really go mad about loose ends, you better don't pick this up. He has finished it with an open ending with endless possibilities. But I understand why, this whole thing has happened in one night so which can take different level in the next day and anything can happen after that. So I loved how it ended. It made me think a lot.