Can we truly become our authentic self?

This is the question Haruki Murakami attempts to answer in his latest novel, The City and its Uncertain Walls. It was already released in Japan in April 2023 and will be released in the United States this November.

Murakami tells the story of an unnamed protagonist that is chronicling his life from his lovesick teenage years until middle age. Throughout the story, the main character grapples with the disappearance of his true love and embarks on a quest to locate her in an imagined city. However, in that process, our protagonist gets separated from his shadow and has to find a new life for himself as a head librarian in a small town far away from his birthplace of Tokyo.

The first part of the novel focuses on the teenage relationship between the protagonist and his true love. Murakami ponders the agony of a first love and becomes overly fixated on it, which I find excessive. However, he lays the groundwork for where the novel truly takes off in the second and third parts of the story.

The remaining parts of the novel focus on the protagonist taking a job as a small town head librarian. He was recruited by an enigmatic individual who had a sole interest in hiring him. The protagonist and the man develop a relationship which adds to clues of about the imagined city and how one can reconnect with their lost shadow. Also, the protagonist connects to a young boy that loves to read and comes to the library often. The boy doesn’t speak and has no social skills, but adds another layer to the protagonist’s search for his true love.

Murakami masterfully brings these elements into a novel that I will consider a minor masterpiece. The City and Its Uncertain Walls have all the classic Murakami themes of loneliness, ache, identity, and surrealism within an urban landscape. This is my fifth Murakami novel I have read and will be my favorite one of them all, just edging out A Wild Sheep Chase. The City and its Uncertain Walls is a love letter to books, reading, and the magic they can provide for someone that does not always fit in with society.

The translation by Philip Gabriel was sublime and made for a great reading experience. Also, I would like to thank NetGalley for this advance copy I received in exchange for an honest review.