Key themes
- The alternate world entered by crossing — and the impossibility of return
- Cult religion and the innocent who is drawn into it
- Love across parallel worlds — and whether it can survive
About this book
In 1984 Tokyo, a fitness instructor named Aomame and a novelist's ghostwriter named Tengo find their lives converging toward an alternate version of the world — a 1Q84 where two moons hang in the sky and mysterious forces called the Little People shape reality. Murakami's most ambitious novel since The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a love story set at the intersection of cult religion, magical realism and alternate history.
Published in three volumes in Japanese in 2009-10 and in English in one volume in 2011, 1Q84 sold over seven million copies in Japan — breaking records — before the English translation was even published.
Discussion questions
- The novel's title plays on the Japanese pronunciation of 1984 and Orwell's dystopia. How does Murakami use this reference — and what does 1Q84 share with and differ from Orwell's world?
- The Little People are the novel's most mysterious element — never fully explained. How does Murakami use this opacity — and what do the Little People represent?
- Aomame and Tengo's storylines are separated for much of the novel. How does Murakami develop the reader's desire for them to find each other — and does the eventual convergence satisfy?
- The novel is very long — over a thousand pages — and was published in three volumes in Japan. Does the length feel necessary — and where, if anywhere, could it be tighter?
- 1Q84 is Murakami's most commercially successful novel. What does it offer readers of his other work — and what does it do differently from Norwegian Wood or Kafka on the Shore?
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