The Strange Library

September 22, 2014
A boy's routine day at the public library becomes a trip down the rabbit hole in Murakami's (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage) short novel. The boy meets a demanding old man, who forces him to read the books he's requested in a hidden reading room in the basement. After following the labyrinthine corridors, the boy is led by the old man into a cell, where he must memorize the history of tax collection in the Ottoman Empire. In the bowels of the library, the boy meets a beautiful, mute girl who brings him meals, as well as a subservient sheepman (whom we also meet in Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase) who fixes the boy crispy doughnuts and clues him in to the old man's sadistic plans. Full-page designs from Chip Kidd divide the sections, bolstering the book's otherworldliness with images from the text alongside mazelike designs and dizzying close-ups of painted faces. This dryly funny, concise fable features all the hallmarks of Murakami's deadpan magic, along with splashes of Lewis Carroll and the brothers Grimm. 32 illus. First printing: 75,000 copies.

February 2, 2015
In this short, dreamy fable by Japanese fantasist Murakami, a young student describes his arrival at an odd Tokyo library. For no apparent reason, he is sent to the ancient, abrasive librarian, who leads him through an underground labyrinth of rooms and passages. On this curious journey the unnamed student is confronted by a man wearing a sheepskin, a large furious green-eyed dog, and a young woman who silently provides him with delicious, freshly baked doughnuts. Eventually he discovers the librarian’s sinister, seemingly inescapable plan. The novella has its share of whimsy, which reader Heybourne conveys along with the student’s youthful naïveté. Eventually this is replaced by a mood of confusion and anxiety, as the librarian croakily describes the protagonist’s fate. This audio presentation perfectly captures the perplexing, nightmarish, and beguiling atmosphere of Murakami’s fiction, but whether that is enough to compensate for the loss of the print edition’s brilliant full-page designs by Chip Kidd is a decision the buyer will have to make. A Knopf hardcover.