A Wild Sheep Chase

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Title A Wild Sheep Chase

Paperback cover
Author Haruki Murakami
Original title 羊をめぐる冒険, Hitsuji o meguru bōken
Translator Alfred Birnbaum
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Genre(s) Surreal novel
Publisher Kodansha International
Released 1989
Media type Print (Hardvover and Paperback)
Pages 299 (US Hardcover)
400 (UK Paperback)
296 (US Paperback)
ISBN ISBN 0-87011-905-2 (US Edition)
ISBN 0-09-944882-3 (UK edition)
ISBN 0-375-70402-7 (US edition)
Preceded by Pinball, 1973
Followed by Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめぐる冒険 Hitsuji o meguru bōken?) is a novel published in 1982 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It is the sequel to Pinball, 1973, and is the third book in Murakami's "Trilogy of the Rat".

In A Wild Sheep Chase, Murakami blends elements of American literature with Japanese contexts, exploring post-WWII Japanese cultural identity. The book is part mystery and part fantasy with a post-modern twist.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

This mock-detective tale follows an unnamed Japanese man through Tokyo and Hokkaidō in 1978. The passive, neurotic, chain-smoking main character gets swept away on an adventure that leads him on a hunt for a sheep that hasn’t been seen for years. The apathetic protagonist meets a woman with magically seductive ears and a strange man who dresses as a sheep and talks in slurs; in this way there are elements of Japanese animism or Shinto.

Murakami wrote a sequel to this book, entitled Dance Dance Dance, which also follows the adventures of an unnamed protagonist and the Sheep Man. However, its plot, tone and the majority of the characters are sufficiently different that Dance Dance Dance can be seen as separate from the "Trilogy of the Rat."

A Wild Sheep Chase (English edition) by Haruki Murakami; translated by Alfred Birnbaum.


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