The Rat

Series · 7 books · 1979-2012

By Haruki Murakami

Books in series

Hear the Wind Sing

1979

Hear the Wind Sing is the first novel by Haruki Murakami; it first appeared in the June 1979 issue of Gunzo, one of the most influential literary magazines in Japan. There’s not a whole lot to say story wise. A young man drinks a lot of beer and has strange conversations with a mysterious young lady he just met. So, classic Murakami.

Pinball, 1973

1980

The plot centers on the narrator's brief but intense obsession with pinball, his life as a freelance translator, and his later efforts to reunite with the old pinball machine that he used to play. He describes living with a pair of identical unnamed female twins, who mysteriously appear in his apartment one morning, and disappear at the end of the book. Interspersed with the narrative are his memories of the Japanese student movement, and of his old girlfriend Naoko. The plot alternates between describing the life of narrator and that of his friend, The Rat.

A Wild Sheep Chase

1982

His life was like a recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan's finest novelist.

Dance Dance Dance

1988

Alternate cover edition here. High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem. Combine this offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose and out comes Dance Dance Dance.

#1-2

Wind/Pinball

Two Novels

1980

Discover Haruki Murakami's first two novels. _'If you're the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o'clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly. That's who I am.'_ Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are Haruki Murakami's earliest novels. They follow the fortunes of the narrator and his friend, known only by his nickname, the Rat. In Hear the Wind Sing the narrator is home from college on his summer break. He spends his time drinking beer and smoking in J's Bar with the Rat, listening to the radio, thinking about writing and the women he has slept with, and pursuing a relationship with a girl with nine fingers. Three years later, in Pinball, 1973, he has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator and live with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to leave both the town and his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of his own doomed relationship but also, more bizarrely, by his short-lived obsession with playing pinball in J's Bar. This sends him on a quest to find the exact model of pinball machine he had enjoyed playing years earlier: the three-flipper Spaceship.

#1-3

Трилогия Крысы

2012

Так получилось у Харуки Мураками, что в "Трилогию Крысы" входят четыре романа. Не удивляйтесь, все правильно! "Слушай песню ветра " и "Пинбол" - два первых романа знаменитого цикла писателя, завершающегося "Охотой на овец" и продолженного романом "Дэнс, дэнс, дэнс". "Я понятия не имею, что случится, заверни я за вон тот угол... Никогда не знаешь, что там найдешь. И когда я пишу, со мной происходит тоже самое" . Это объясняет появление продолжения "Дэнс, дэнс, дэнс". "Мои книги - это ... попытки абсолютного романа, собрания историй, рассказанных самыми разными персонажами. Они рассказывают и исцеляют друг друга. Роман - книга исцеления. Перед вами самая Большая книга Мураками, абсолютный роман, в таком составе ранее не издававшийся. СОДЕРЖАНИЕ: Слушай песню ветра переводчик: Вадим Смоленский, Пинбол-1973 переводчик: Вадим Смоленский, Охота на овец переводчик: Дмитрий Коваленин, Дэнс, дэнс, дэнс переводчик: Дмитрий Коваленин

#3-4

A Wild Sheep Chase / Dance Dance Dance

2006

"A Wild Sheep Chase" - His life was like his recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Haruki Murakami. "Dance Dance Dance" - High-class call girls billed to Mastercard; a psychic thirteen-year-old drop-out with a passion for Talking Heads; a hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers; a one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem; combine this offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose and out comes "Dance Dance Dance". It is an assault on the senses, part murder mystery, part metaphysical speculation; a fable for our times as catchy as a rock song blasting from the window of a sports car.

Author

Haruki Murakami

Author · 97 books

Murakami Haruki (Japanese: 村上春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'. He can be located on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/harukimuraka... Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by American writers, such as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and he is often distinguished from other Japanese writers by his Western influences. Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his wife, Yoko. His first job was at a record store, which is where one of his main characters, Toru Watanabe in Norwegian Wood, works. Shortly before finishing his studies, Murakami opened the coffeehouse 'Peter Cat' which was a jazz bar in the evening in Kokubunji, Tokyo with his wife. Many of his novels have themes and titles that invoke classical music, such as the three books making up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: The Thieving Magpie (after Rossini's opera), Bird as Prophet (after a piano piece by Robert Schumann usually known in English as The Prophet Bird), and The Bird-Catcher (a character in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute). Some of his novels take their titles from songs: Dance, Dance, Dance (after The Dells' song, although it is widely thought it was titled after the Beach Boys tune), Norwegian Wood (after The Beatles' song) and South of the Border, West of the Sun (the first part being the title of a song by Nat King Cole).