The City and its Uncertain Walls
ABOUT
THE BOOK
A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times.
STEP INTO THE CITY. . .
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own.
When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory
Original title in Japanese 街とその不確かな壁, published by Shinchosha
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Philip
Gabriel
Philip Gabriel is an American translator and Japanologist. He is a full professor and former department chair of the University of Arizona’s Department of East Asian Studies and is one of the major translators into English of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.
Philip Gabriel is an American translator and Japanologist. He is a full professor and former department chair of the University of Arizona’s Department of East Asian Studies and is one of the major translators into English of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Murakami once again uses his idiosyncratic style – a blend of magical realism, Kafkaesque existentialism and a poetic slapstick reminiscent of Douglas Adams, all wrapped into the contemporary way of life in Japan. He offers a beautiful rendition of love and loss that is equally sad and comforting. (Frankfurt am Main Public Library)