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Norwegian Wood

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Norwegian Wood

By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator
Narrated by: Adam Sims
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The haunting love story that turned Murakami into a literary superstar.

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.

'Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around' Time Out

'Such is the exquisite, gossamer construction of Murakami's writing that everything he chooses to describe trembles with symbolic possibility' Guardian

'This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows' Independent on Sunday

© Haruki Murakami 1987 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 20th Century Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

Norwegian Wood is Japan's The Catcher in the Rye
Everyone who reads Norwegian Wood runs out to buy copies for friends and lovers... Drawing on Fitzgerald, Capote, Chandler and the Japanese tradition, his books are at once disarmingly direct and slyly, charmingly evasive. They are playful and melancholy; full of wrong turns and red herrings, corridors that lead nowhere and - above all - girls who disappear
A masterly novel. . . . Norwegian Wood bears the unmistakable marks of Murakami's hand
This book is undeniably hip, full of student uprisings, free love, booze and 1960s pop, it's also genuinely emotionally engaging, and describes the highs of adolescence as well as the lows
Catches the absorption and giddy rush of adolescent love... It is also, for all the tragic momentum and the apparently kamikaze consciousness of many of its characters, often funny and quirkily observed. Quietly compulsive and finally moving
A heart-stoppingly moving story... Murakami is, without a doubt, one of the world's finest novelists
Evocative, entertaining, sexy and funny; but then Murakami is one of the best writers around
Norwegian Wood . . . not only points to but manifests the author's genius
An intimate and dark story... A beautifully introspective novel that made me feel all the emotions
Murakami must already rank among the world's greatest living novelists
All stars
Most relevant
Enjoyed the story, but the whiney nasal narration made every character sound petulant and unpleasant

Good story, sub-par narration

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The book had been recommended to me by a friend so I stuck with it. I found the narration off putting. I had seen a review that said the women characters spoke strangely. I agree they spoke in a way that didn’t feel natural to me. All the way through I kept thinking I am going to have to read it myself.

Great story but off putting narration

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very developed characters, 10/10

The performance of the narrator in male voice is perfect but his female voice is reaching uncanny valley a bit.

I loved the book even more than Kafka On The Shore

Murakami is a huge horndog. I love it.

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It's a shame the narrerator makes the characters so sassy and unlikable. He even ruined alot of the memorable quotes by rushing over them with the sassy bratty nasal annoying voice. I've read this book once before and the feeling I had while reading was nostalgic and calm. Now while listening it seems like a boring plain story with sassy unlikable characters... What a shame. Recommend the book but not the listen.

A sweet story

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I recently came across this book through an app that I am subscribed to. I am so glad that I did. I was so captivated by the narration, the characters and all their own stories. I loved it!

Great Story Telling

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