Book Review: The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

This is a big book - big ideas, big themes, big impact, it’s long, too. Where to start? It’s a hard one to describe but let’s say that there are elements of fantasy that as a reader you have to lose yourself in, in order to enjoy the story. The book follows the path of a teenage boy who falls in love and spends the rest of his life thinking about his lost love (spoiler: she disappears). He also spends time within a world that they created together and finds himself constantly questioning if he should be in that world and face the challenges that are required to go there, or stay in the ‘real’ world. There are unicorns, ghosts, shadows that talk and it is quite carefully all tied together by the narrator who is calm, ordered and very keen on books. The City and its Uncertain Walls leaves you with questions and makes you think about identity. Just don’t overthink it. It’s Murakami at his most bold and fantastical.