Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami was originally published in Japanese in 1985 and translated into English by Alfred Birnbaum in 1991. It won the Tanizaki Prize in 1985 and received acclaim from The Japan Times and Publishers Weekly as well as other literary critics. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a mix of hard-boiled detective fiction with magical realism. It could also be categorized as speculative fiction with elements of film noir. Furthermore, Murakami is inspired by Japanese mythology and culture. Overall, the novel resists categorization in many ways. The title refers to the two plotlines in the novel. The hard-boiled sections are the odd-numbered chapters, and the even-numbered chapters are set at the end of the world.

This guide cites the 1993 Vintage International Trade Paperback edition.

Plot Summary

The novel is split into two parts: a futuristic, hard-boiled Tokyo and a mysterious Town at the end of the world. The chapters alternate between different versions of the same narrator, who does not retain memories between each setting.

The book begins with the hard-boiled narrator accepting a Calcutec job encoding data for a professor. The Professor’s granddaughter leads the narrator to a hidden lab where the Professor demonstrates sonic technologies and gives the narrator data to launder, or encode. He launders the data in the lab and agrees to shuffle the data, which is a more difficult and dangerous kind of encryption, back at his apartment. The data is later revealed to be a program, and shuffling it will cause the narrator’s mind to separate from the real world if the Professor does not reverse the program in four days.

The narrator goes to a library to research a skull the Professor gives him. The librarian helps him with his research and tries to sleep with him, but he is unable to perform. After the librarian leaves, the narrator’s house is invaded, first by a city employee bribed by criminals, then by a pair of agents working for the criminal organization called the Factory. The Factory thugs wreck his apartment, wound the narrator’s stomach, and tell him to not tell the government-funded System, the organization that oversees Calcutecs. Shortly thereafter, the Professor’s granddaughter convinces the narrator to travel back to the Professor’s underground lab.

The lab has been ransacked, and the girl believes underground monsters called INKlings, subterranean creatures who hypnotize humans with sound and are terrified of light, must have helped the Factory break in. She leads the narrator down a secret passage through the domains of the INKlings. They find the Professor at the sanctuary of the INKlings. He explains that the narrator is the only surviving Calcutec who can shuffle, as all the others have died. This is because his mind was already split before he underwent the shuffling surgery.

The Professor cannot reverse the program due to the destruction of his lab. He explains that the narrator will become immortal but trapped in his own unconscious in 29 hours. The Professor’s granddaughter and the narrator head back to the surface. The girl offers to sleep with the narrator, but he turns her down kindly and sleeps with the librarian instead. This plotline of the book ends ambiguously after the narrator lives the remaining hours of his life to the fullest by feeding birds in the park and listening to music cassettes in a rented car overlooking the bay.

The end of the world (even-numbered) chapters are located in a Town surrounded by a Wall with a small population of people and unicorns. Here, the narrator lost his memories when the Gatekeeper cut off his shadow, which is then imprisoned by the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper disfigures the narrator’s eyes, causing him to be hurt by bright light but able to see dreams, and sends him to the Library, where the Librarian provides him with unicorn skulls full of dreams.

When autumn falls, the narrator is able to visit his shadow, who asks him to make a map of the end of the world. The narrator does so, exploring the walled space and its woods extensively. In winter, the unicorns start dying en masse, requiring the Gatekeeper and the narrator’s shadow to burn them. The Librarian offers to sleep with the narrator, but he turns her down. As a result of his map-making explorations, the narrator gets sick, which keeps him from getting the map to his shadow in time.

When he recovers, he is able to visit his very ill shadow, who plans an escape from the Town. The narrator is hesitant about escaping the Town. He and the Librarian travel to the Power Station, where the Caretaker gives them an accordion. The narrator plays the accordion in front of the stacks of unicorn skulls to find pieces of the Librarian’s mind after learning that unicorns carry pieces of the townspeople’s selves. Later, when it is time to escape through the whirlpool in the south of Town, the narrator refuses to leave and chooses to remain in the Town with his beloved Librarian while his shadow escapes. This plot also ends ambiguously with the narrator watching birds fly off in the winter sky.