The Adventure of Seeking Sheep

Author: (Japanese) Haruki Murakami
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-08-01
Features: The Adventures of Kavalier & the Clay is Murakami's third novel after his debut works Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, forming the "I and Rat" trilogy. The novel is rich in allegorical and mythic elements, and the author considered its creation "so smooth that it ended just when it was perfectly timed." The Adventures of Kavalier & the Clay is Murakami's first full-scale long novel, earning him the Naoki Prize for Literary Newcomers. A superpowered sheep that controls all of Japan goes missing, and its host—a yakuza boss—is on the brink of death. A down-and-out Tokyo office worker accidentally obtains a photo of the sheep and becomes the target of the yakuza, taking his girlfriend on a quest to find the sheep. In the snowy wilderness of Hokkaido, he finally meets the photographer of the photo—not, however, the man himself, but his ghost, as the friend known as "Rat" has already perished alongside the source of evil. The third installment in Murakami's "Youth Trilogy," The Adventures of Kavalier & the Clay opens the door to new literature in Japan with its unique blend of reality and fantasy.