The City and Its Uncertain Walls

Hardcover, 449 pages

English language

Published 2024 by Harvill Secker.

ISBN:: 978-1-78730-447-5

(1 review)

When a young man's girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. 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 dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he's willing to lose.

3 editions

Thomas reviewed The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

A Mysterious Adventure Across Two Worlds

4 stars

When I first started reading this novel, I quickly noticed the similarity of central elements of the story to those of Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. At first, this frustrated me a bit. Partly because I could not quite remember the plot of the latter since I read it a long time ago and struggled comparing them. Partly, I could not help thinking, “did Murakami run of steam? Is this all he has left to offer; re-writing an older story of his?” My initial frustration with the story was soon put to shame. The story took an interesting twist which made it clear to me that this was definitely not the same story as Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Murakami introduces several interesting characters who play roles that still puzzle me and kept me reading more and more. I can still not say that …

When I first started reading this novel, I quickly noticed the similarity of central elements of the story to those of Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. At first, this frustrated me a bit. Partly because I could not quite remember the plot of the latter since I read it a long time ago and struggled comparing them. Partly, I could not help thinking, “did Murakami run of steam? Is this all he has left to offer; re-writing an older story of his?” My initial frustration with the story was soon put to shame. The story took an interesting twist which made it clear to me that this was definitely not the same story as Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Murakami introduces several interesting characters who play roles that still puzzle me and kept me reading more and more. I can still not say that I quite understand what the story was about (as with several of Murakami’s stories), but it was a great reading experience to me none the less.