Dance Dance Dance

In this propulsive novel by the author of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Elephant Vanishes, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work in any language fuses science fiction, the hard-boiled thriller, and white-hot satire into a new element of the literary periodic table.

As he searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, Haruki Murakami's protagonist plunges into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread in which he collides with call girls; plays chaperone to a lovely teenaged psychic; and receives cryptic instructions from a shabby but oracular Sheep Man. Dance Dance Dance is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through the cultural Cuisinart that is contemporary Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs.

"A world-class writer who takes big risks....If Murakami is the voice of a generation then it is the generation of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo." Washington Post Book World

"A Japanese Philip K. Dick with a sense of humor....[Murakami belongs] in the topmost rank of writers of international stature." Newsday

"Loaded with...mystery, mysticism, sex and rock 'n' roll....Fast-moving and funny....The narrative voice...pulls like a diesel." Los Angeles Times Book Review

"In this impressive sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase, Murakami displays his talent to brilliant effect....All the hallmarks of Murakami's greatness are here: restless and sensitive characters, disturbing shifts into altered reality, silky smooth turns of phrase and a narrative with all the momentum of a roller coaster." Publishers Weekly

"The relentless coyness and flippancy that characterized A Wild Sheep Chase gives way here to passages that are sometimes lyrical and an ending that is at once desperate, affirmative, and filled with the breath of life." Library Journal

"As well as acute intelligence, the novel has a relentless pace and verve which would run the world's best blockbuster out of breath....Although the text has its share of postmodern devices, the final effect is neither tricksy nor impenetrable. Philip Kerr, Paul Auster and Nicholson Baker could all take tuition from Haruki Murakami..." Alexander Harrison, The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"[O]ffers lively, witty writing with a stimulating intellectual underpinning....The most important contribution of Dance, Dance, Dance, however, may well be in redefining a genre for a new generation. This book belongs in all collections of contemporary fiction." Tom Howard, MultiCultural Review

This sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase features an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey living in a world glittering with technology in which something is wanting still.

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. The most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. He is the author of the novels Dance, Dance, Dance; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; A Wild Sheep Chase; South of the Border, West of the Sun; and Sputnik Sweetheart; of The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of stories; and of Underground, a work of non-fiction. His work has been translated into fourteen languages.