[1Q84 03] • 1Q84 · 3

**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 realizes, 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.