Wind/ Pinball

Author Haruki Murakami
Narrator Kirby Heyborne
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 11 March 2021
Run Time 7 hours and 49 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Fantasy, Fiction in translation, Magical realism, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

'If you're the sort of guy who raids the refrigerators of silent kitchens at three o'clock in the morning, you can only write accordingly.

That's who I am.'

Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are Haruki Murakami's earliest novels. They follow the fortunes of the narrator and his friend, known only by his nickname, the Rat. In Hear the Wind Sing the narrator is home from college on his summer break. He spends his time drinking beer and smoking in J's Bar with the Rat, listening to the radio, thinking about writing and the women he has slept with, and pursuing a relationship with a girl with nine fingers.

Three years later, in Pinball, 1973, he has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator and live with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to leave both the town and his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of his own doomed relationship but also, more bizarrely, by his short-lived obsession with playing pinball in J's Bar. This sends him on a quest to find the exact model of pinball machine he had enjoyed playing years earlier: the three-flipper Spaceship.

© Haruki Murakami 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

Murakami fans will no doubt delight in this new publication. For newcomers, these early works are an excellent introduction to a writer who has since become one of the most influential novelists of his generation

Observer

Murakami’s way of making emotionally resonant images and symbols bump around on the page, and in one’s mind, remains fresh, miraculously, more than 35 years on

Evening Standard

Wind/Pinball is a fresh, heart-warming dose of the Japanese master

Economist

To read a Murakami book is to feel comforted by the familiarity and predictability of its strangeness. These are Murakami’s two earliest novels and so, like archaeological artefacts, they detail the early construction of his now-famous style.

The Times Literary Supplement

quintessential Murakami… an excellent introduction to a writer who has since become one of the most influential novelists of his generation

Hannah Beckerman

This two-for-the-price-of-one hardback really is something special… The decorative covers are exquisite, but it is the literature between them that cemented Murakami as one of the world’s most celebrated writers

Travel Guide

Early Murakami isn’t Murakami-in-the-making, it’s already and entirely Murakami

Guardian

bizarre and often surreal, these stories act as an intriguing exploration into Murakami’s wacky mind and thought processes

Herald

Wind/Pinball makes a great introduction to Murakami for new readers, and is a real treat for long-time fans

Nudge

From the very beginning, it seems, Murakami has had the ability to make a story in which nothing happens seem completely irresistible. And to make almost any degree of bizarreness seem completely natural

Skinny

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