or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
X
More Buying Choices
95 used & new from $3.89
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)
 
 
See all product images
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent..." (more)
Key Phrases: unicorn skull, chubby granddaughter, shuffled data, Big Boy, Power Station, Western Hill (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
List Price: $15.00
Price: $10.20 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.80 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Friday, November 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
45 new from $7.26 47 used from $3.89 3 collectible from $14.95

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover -- $99.99 $6.06
  Paperback $10.20 $7.26 $3.89
  Audio, CD, Audiobook $56.69 $56.69 --

Frequently Bought Together

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) + The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel + A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel
Price For All Three: $31.28

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Jay Rubin

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel by Haruki Murakami

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel

A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel

by Haruki Murakami
4.3 out of 5 stars (115)  $10.20
Dance Dance Dance

Dance Dance Dance

by Haruki Murakami
4.3 out of 5 stars (79)  $10.17
Sputnik Sweetheart

Sputnik Sweetheart

by Haruki Murakami
4.1 out of 5 stars (88)  $10.08
South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel

South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel

by Haruki Murakami
4.0 out of 5 stars (119)  $10.08
Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood

by Haruki Murakami
4.5 out of 5 stars (182)  $10.04
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Murakami's lightning prose more than sustains the elaborate plot of this thriller, set in a Tokyo of the near future.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal

The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator of this excellent book by Murakami, one of Japan's best-selling novelists and winner of the prestigious Tanizaki prize. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark "replacement" consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow. Murakami's fast-paced style, full of hip internationalism, slangy allegory, and intrigue, has been adroitly translated. Murakami is also author of A Wild Sheep Chase ( LJ 10/15/89); his new work is recommended for academic libraries and public libraries emphasizing serious contemporary fiction.
- D.E. Perushek, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Later printing edition (March 2, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679743464
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679743460
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Haruki Murakami
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Haruki Murakami Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unicorn skull, chubby granddaughter, shuffled data, gas inspector, chubby girl, core consciousness, old officer
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Big Boy, Power Station, Western Hill, Old Bridge, Ben Johnson, Bob Dylan, Apple Grove, Official Residences, Northern Ridge, Professor Petrov, Aoyama Itchome, East Gate, Ginza Line, Shadow Grounds, System Central, West Bridge, Eastern Woods, Leningrad University, Marcel Proust, Pictorial Atlas, Southern Hill, Central Research, Collection Room, Duran Duran, Key Largo
New!
Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 19 books:
See all 19 books this book cites
 
24 books cite this book:
See all 24 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)
72% buy the item featured on this page:
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) 4.4 out of 5 stars (137)
$10.20
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
9% buy
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel 4.3 out of 5 stars (301)
$10.88
A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel
7% buy
A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel 4.3 out of 5 stars (115)
$10.20
Kafka on the Shore
7% buy
Kafka on the Shore 4.0 out of 5 stars (195)
$10.20
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(25)
(21)
(17)
(14)
(12)
(11)
(10)
(8)
(6)
(4)
(3)
See all 31 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

137 Reviews
5 star:
 (82)
4 star:
 (35)
3 star:
 (13)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (137 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars WHICH WORLD DO I BELONG TO?, December 22, 2005
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World follows two distinct and parallel storylines, both with unnamed narrators who might or might not be the same person. In the first storyline, the narrator is a "Calcutec", a computer specialist working for "The System" to protect data against the "Semiotecs", an organization of powerful black market information pirates. Called down into the sewers below Tokyo against regulations and against the law, the main character agrees to "shuffle", or encode the work of a nutty professor who says he has discovered a way to make bones talk! His life might be in danger though because all the major powers want a piece of this new technology. This plotline alternates chapters with a more fantasy type idyll about a town surrounded by an impenetrable and unscalable wall, in which the narrator tries to figure out who he is and how he came there. There are other inhabitants but all their comments are pretty cryptic. But there's some bizarre stuff going on. For example, there are unicorns grazing around the town, you lose your shadow, and the narrator is given the job of "reading dreams" from the skulls of strange beasts! He must set about figuring out how to escape unless he wants to be trapped there forever.

This novel was weird but refreshing. I thought it was pretty clever of Murakami to almost write two books in one, the first being a cyberpunk adventure and the other a strange surreal fantasy. But it worked. Don't worry, these two stories within a novel do have a purpose in being joined together, even though you might not understand all the "physics" talk when explanations are given. You get the gist of it. Harold Bloom once said that what gives a novel its lasting greatness is that it has to be strange. Murakami more than lives up to this thought and makes you feel as if you've entered a new world. That's a good thing. It really gives you a sense of wonder and mental adventure which you don't find too often in literature these days. I look forward to reading his other works.

If you liked this book, I would highly recommend viewing a Japanese anime called Haibane-Renmei which was greatly influenced by the fantasy parts of Hard-Boiled Wonderland.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A hard rain's a-gonna fall, February 9, 2004
By Van Der Zee (Veghel, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This has been the first Murakami novel I have ever read, and I must say it is by far the best novel I have read in a long time ! I don't think it is right to simply attach a label like "cyberpunk" or "sci-fi" to the book, because I feel the psychological aspects of the journey of a man towards his inner self are the main focus of the book. The sci-fi elements that Murakami uses to set up the plot to me are merely background settings.
It is a well known fact to each living soul on this earth that death is inevitable, and one generally needs a lifetime to accept that. In this case, the main character is forced to complete his acceptation process within a day. While addressing the absurd question of "what would I do on my last conscious day", Murakami manages to create a cold concrete, painfully touching "radiohead"-like atmosphere in which the main character shamefully realizes the total triviality of his life.
The end of the book still lingers in my head, Murakami uses a lot of references to american pop culture throughout the book, but not just for the simple reference itself. When you will have read the book you will understand his last reference to Bob Dylan's "A hard rain's a-gonna fall":

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Interconnectedness of All Things, February 6, 2000
By Bibliophile (New York) - See all my reviews
This is simply the best book I have ever read! I was hooked from the first page and drawn into the world of the narrator as subtly as one is drawn into a dream. The linking of the subconscious and conscious elements of the mind are at work here, and this is what makes this book all at once so wonderful, disturbing and enlightening. It is a psychological masterpiece and lays bare the interconnectedness of all things- the people in our lives, the places, the choices we make, our dreams, desires, longings and regrets and most importantly, the often inexplicable and enigmatic relationship between our subconscious and conscious mind. The masterful way Murakami interweaves the chapters begins with a divergent simplicity and gradually progresses to a complex, synchronistic web/mandala in which all points share a beginning yet have no end.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily mundane- a treat for the observer
A nameless cast in a half-fantasy Tokyo and internal cerebral realm dominate the pages of this Murakami novel. Read more
Published 6 months ago by M-I-K-E 2theD

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
I have read this book both in English and Japanese. Although there's some intentional change, the translation is superb. The essence is never lost in translation. Read more
Published 11 months ago by compulsive reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
I picked this book up at random at a book store. Something about the cover just caught my attention, and it seemed oddly familiar. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Jeff F.

5.0 out of 5 stars another catching Murakami adventure
The story might seem a bit crazy first (a guy neurologically trained to shuffle experimental data, a professor who does research on sound-removal, and his lonely grown-up... Read more
Published 12 months ago by M. Grutzmann

5.0 out of 5 stars Another trip down the rabbit hole
As the fifth Murakami that I have read, this is my favorite. All of Murakami's works share elements such as having a 30something seemingly nondescript protagonist, an underage... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jonathan D. Kaunitz

3.0 out of 5 stars bits missing
I am about to finish reading the Japanese text, using the English translation as a help. The novel is OK, but what I noticed is that entire bits of it are missing in the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Nano

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel about the mind and the desire for immortality
A wonderful and weird novel about the mind and what the desire for immortality entails (compare with Borges' short story 'The Immortal', you won't be disappointed). Read more
Published 17 months ago by Andy F.

5.0 out of 5 stars Patience is a virtue
This book requires some patience. My friend, who usually does not enjoy reading, recommended this book to me because it is one of his favorites. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Plum

5.0 out of 5 stars Got my brain muscles working
Admittedly, this isn't a book I'd have picked up for a casual read, but once I got past the first 100 pages, I couldn't set it down. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Smita Rao

5.0 out of 5 stars Unicorns at the end of the world
Imagine if Raymond Chandler had collaborated with David Lynch, maybe with Philip K. Dick throwing in a few cents every now and then. Read more
Published 20 months ago by E. A Solinas

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)

Hard Boiled Wonderland won for Murakami the Tanizaki Literary Prize - 1985 in Japan. Which year did Murakami write...? More about the author: Haruki Murakami And more about his writing style: Haruki Murakami and his Music The Hard Boiled Style ...

(Report this)
Created on Feb 23, 2006, last edited on May 31, 2006.

› Read More and Edit at Amapedia.com opens new browser window


Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:







i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.