Product Description

"A Wild Sheep Chase" is one of Murakami's most fantastical novels. An advertising executive, infatuated with a girl who possesses the most perfect ears (an erotic charge for him) uses a picture of a sheep with a star on its back. This catapults him into a weird adventure to find the mythical sheep up in the wilds of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island. There are strange encounters, a hotel with an extra disappearing floor, and other oddities. "A Wild Sheep Chase" is an early Murakami work, but its remarkable and individual voice makes it one of the most thrilling of his books. It is superbly read by Rupert Degas with an edge of Raymond Chandler.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1348551 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07
• Released on: 2007-06-06
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
A Japanese yuppie plunges into chaos after he discovers a snapshot depicting a unique crossbreed of sheep. In "a comic combination of disparate styles: a mock-hardboiled mystery, a metaphysical speculation and an ironic first-person account of an impossible quest . . . Murakami emerges as a wholly original talent," PW wrote.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This novel, the American debut of a popular contemporary Japanese writer, will have a familiar ring to Western ears. The narrative moves adroitly through mystery, fable, pensive realism, and modernist absurdity to tell the tale--at least on the surface--of a Japanese man caught up in a puzzling quest for a somewhat mystical sheep. The spare style echoes Raymond Carver, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, with matter-of-fact absurdities reminiscent of John Irving and, in less inspired moments, Tom Robbins. While the climax of the story is somewhat unrewarding, many readers will enjoy being pulled along by the playful and engaging style and fluid structure. Interesting as an example of current Japanese writing and as an unusually hip and irreverent look at contemporary Japanese society, this would be a nice addition to larger fiction collections.
- Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll., N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In this quirky novel from Japan, the unnamed 30-something narrator goes searching for his hidden friend, The Rat, and a magic sheep seemingly bent on world domination. Part satire, part mystery, the book dwells mostly on the protagonist's ruminations on personalities, events, and milieu. The British audio publisher has cast an American reader. Rupert Degas sounds like a likable East Coast grad student while impersonating the hero, giving the musings and descriptions dramatic and expressive force. In dialogue passages, however, he relies upon his skill with character voices, making them cartoonish. The Rat, for instance, sounds like Woody Allen. This approach seems to clash with the authorial voice, not to mention the Asian setting. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine