Waiting on Wednesday #2

Waiting on Wednesday spotlights upcoming releases to be excited about! (Created by Jill at Breaking the Spine)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Published October 17, 2011 by Harvill Secker

(This is Amazon:)

The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.

Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a stand-still, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.

Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?

Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.

(This is Alex:)
I am really not sure I can describe just how excited I am about this book. Ever since I heard that it was being published in Japan two years ago I had been waiting and waiting for the news that it would be translated into English. It has been a very LONG two years, let me tell you. But it's almost time and I am getting jittery all over again. And really, if you've not read any Murakami by now - you're really missing out!