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Norwegian Wood

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About this listen

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

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
loved it. will read again when my heart glues back because this story is heartbreaking sometimes

rly good

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The person reading the book has such an arrogant voice, that all the characters and their subtle trademarks disappear, they all just seem hostile all the time.

Such a presumptuous voice

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Norwegian Wooden is true soulful story that will guide you down a truly heart breaking tale. Beautifully written and masterfully narrated.

amazing

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The reader let the story do the work and brought to life the words and world of this story which are so honest. And if you lived uni or school life lonely and unsure how to deal with love and loss then this is for you

Narrative

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Enjoyed the story, but the whiney nasal narration made every character sound petulant and unpleasant

Good story, sub-par narration

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