The novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami is a strange and immersive ride. Murakami’s writing is subtle and almost artlessly naturalistic. There are few huge twists or outsized dramatic moments, but he draws you in with steady, ingratiating details about the characters that make it impossible not to read on. The dreamlike, otherworldly nature of his prose is masterful. Even though I didn’t think the various threads of the story came together in a standard storytelling way, they did all work to present a sense of completion. The parts about the Japanese soldiers in Manchuria in WWII and later in the Soviet prison camp are gripping. The struggles of Toru and Kumiko and her family are elliptical and strange, yet also engaging and ultimately moving.