Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World #
Author Haruki MurakamiDate September 21, 2025Rating 5/5
Oddly enough, this might just be my favorite book of Murakami’s that I’ve read so far. Maybe because the seasons of the book just so happen to align with the current seasons of real life, or maybe because the narrators just felt slightly more understandable than previous ones, but there was something special about it that previous novels of his I’ve read haven’t caught. Maybe it’s because the translator is a different person than for the last ones I’ve read. I think he captures more of the fluidity that I feel gives these two stories more weight. This works in tandem with the differences in distance between the two narratives, and how Birnbaum was able to capture the closeness of “The End of The World” story in comparison with the other. Regardless, I did enjoy this book greatly.