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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

By: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Toru Okada's cat has disappeared, and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.

©1994 Haruki Murakami (P)2020 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Magical Realism Fantasy Magic
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Overall an excellent narration, especially considering the number of female characters.

I hit a wall reading this around 65-80% of the way through, but the story was good overall with a satisfactory (but not stellar) ending.

Excellent Narration

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Loved the story as you’d expect with Murakami but the narrator was so good, it made so much better.

Fantastic story and narrator

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Love this book, story, performance, takes you on such a journey, this is my third haruki book and my new favourite

Fantastic

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Good story, but be prepared to challenge your thoughts, was a little confusing and i constantly questioned if I was interpreting correctly (but I’m not super smart)

Very sureal

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Seems totally random and pointless but I enjoyed the narration enough to keep me in until the different storylines started to click. I don't know what it is it's just really good narration

Fantastic narration

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Extraordinary tale, unlike anything else I’ve ever read. Amazing performance really captures the different characters.

Extraordinary

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Rupert Degas’ reading and performance of this book is simply astoundingly brilliant. His character vocalisation and intonation is world building and emotive.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is Murakami at his finest with unexpected turns and revelations layered into rich story devices. An enjoyable long listen.

A convoluted tale, performed well

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I really enjoyed the book overall, but had some trouble with the voices for a couple of characters, particularly May Kasahara. On the flip side, the narrator's regular speaking voice is quite soothing, and to a non Japanese speaker it seemed that he put some work into understanding the correct pronunciation of some Japanese words and names.

Vocal performance is hit and miss

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These worlds that Murakami sends us into are beautiful and scary dreams that we've all experienced from time to time. But you want to be in them, you want to find the message and have control to explore. This story is such freedom.
The tales that twist around the story could easily be books all of their own. Every character has so much to share.
Fantastic experience.

Fantastic

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Pure Murakami wonder. Lots of twists and turns that kept me wanting more. A definitely read if you like his books.

Kept me wanting more

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