Try free for 2 months

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
AUD $16.45/mo after 2 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime.
1Q84 cover art

1Q84

By: Haruki Murakami,Jay Rubin - translator,Philip Gabriel - translator
Narrated by: Allison Hiroto,Marc Vietor,Mark Boyett
Try for $0.00

AUD $16.45/mo after 2 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $43.99

Buy Now for $43.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realises, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - 'Q' is for 'question mark'. A world that bears a question.

Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's, 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

BONUS AUDIO: Audible interviews the translators of 1Q84, Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.

©2011 Haruki Murakami (P)2011 Audible Ltd

Critic Reviews

"It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style...vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition." ( The Times)
"Eerie, suspenseful and packed full of gorgeous ordinary details and provocative extraordinary events...funny, fresh and intensely surreal. Unmissable." ( Marie Claire)

What listeners say about 1Q84

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    239
  • 4 Stars
    108
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    14
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    247
  • 4 Stars
    79
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    8
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    203
  • 4 Stars
    100
  • 3 Stars
    33
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Impossibly Repetitive

At least half of this book could be edited out.

Has Murakami gotten to the point in his career where editors can't make suggestions? This book seems to tell me more about the author's sexual fantasies and delusions of self importance than an adventure in great fictional story telling.

The underlying method appears to be: 1. Tell me what you're going to tell me. 2. Tell me again. 3. Tell me what you just told me.

Skip the audio book and get the paperback so you can more easily flip passed the volumes of repetition and fluff. Or better yet skip the entire thing and read/listen to something else. I have a problem about having to finish something after I start it and 46 hrs later after much cussing and annoyance I finished it. I'm not proud.

Some may think this repetition and fluff is character developing and world building – but its not. All it does is highlight the illogical thought processes of the characters and their general stupidity.

Maybe I'm not the audience. Maybe it's better in the original language. Maybe its for 12 year old girls.

The only way to get through this is at x1.5 or x1.75 speed. At first the narration is very particular and has an ASMR quality which is great for the first couple of chapters then you realise just how slow it is.

I wouldn't recommend this torture to anyone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivated the entire time

The narration for this story is very well done, the book is so large and daunting that I don't think I could have maintained reading it as regularly as I did when listening to this audiobook. I love hearing the surreal and detailed descriptions and listening to this book provided a very convenient means of escape during the work week.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Struggled to finish. Unnecessarily Long.

Too repetitive. The story was interesting but I kept thinking 'I get it already' . His short stories are better. The male narrator was good, the female no so much. I felt that this was a kids story trying to be adult literature. a bit pretentious ..would be a fantastic anime.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Third time around even better.

I've read this book twice before listening to it. The narration was perfect and made the work more entrancing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointing and clumsy

It read like a teenage boy had written large parts. I don't know any women who think about their own breasts half as much as the female characters in 1Q84. My eyes were nearly rolling out of my head by the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this book

This was an amazing storytelling the narrators brought the characters to life
I have never read a translation from Japanese and I must say I loved it and are now searching for similar works.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Different

I love Japanese and have always wanted to read Japanese literature but this was extremely different then anything else I've read before. I will one day read this in Japanese but for now am happy to have listened to the English version. People seem to either like it or hate it but I just find this whole thing curious and the narrators voices are all to me calming.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • ST
  • 04-09-2019

Mesmerising novel that is a bit too long

1Q84 is an excellent piece of fiction. The best parts are absolutely sublime. The worst parts are cheesy and a bit snooze-worthy.
Overall this is an great book. If you are a Murakami fan you'll find plenty to love here.
He could have written this book in 2/3rds of the length and got the important parts across though.
If you're new to Murakami I'd suggest Kafka on the Shore to see his genius at its absolute burning mercurial best.
If you've read his key works already and want more then yes I'd recommend picking this up and strapping in for one hell of a bizarre and beautiful ride.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surrealist and wonderful!!

A complex and beautiful surrealist story! I loved the main characters and their journey.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

tedious male gaze at women's sexuality

tediously long, tedious male gaze at women's sexuality. I had to stop quarter way through. Even the woman's voice was not powerful. Very disappointing as I have loved his other novels

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.