A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, crime story, and postmodern manifesto come together in a gripping novel: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the masterpiece that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. As it tracks a man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and distance, slang and philosophy.