Toru Okada leads a relatively normal life until, one day, his wife’s cat disappears and then his wife. Through a string of mysterious phone calls and meetings with several strange individuals, Toru Okada learns he must find his wife before she is lost to him forever.

As is Haruki Murakami’s style, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is a very strange novel, which makes it hard to explain. One aspect I thought was kind of weird about the novel was through all the strange happenings Toru Okada doesn’t seem phased by them. Although he did find some of the things weird, he seemed oddly calm throughout it all and even indifferent in some cases.

I think my biggest problem with this novel was that it felt unfinished. Although the main plot has an ending, I feel like some of the characters were dropped without receiving a proper ending. And even though you find out what happened with Toru Okada’s wife I felt like I missed something in the story to help me fully understand.

But even though parts of the book left me slightly confused, I still want more. I love Murakami’s writing style and the fact that his books are so strange is a welcome change to the books I usually read. Once I started reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle I couldn’t put it down and would gladly read it again to hopefully understand what I missed the first time.