A Wild Sheep Chase

By Haruki Murakami ,

Book cover of A Wild Sheep Chase

Book description

Features a cast of bizarre characters, including a sheep with a mysterious star on its back, caught up in a Nietzschean quest for power.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

3 authors picked A Wild Sheep Chase as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This was the book that set me off on a decade-long journey of reading (and re-reading) Murakami. Along with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, another favorite, I've re-read it at least twice.

So why is it about thinking differently? Because the book is written so differently! If you've read any recent speculative fiction, the author likely owes a debt to Murakami and his wondrous approach to narrative storytelling. You'll get lost in a bizarre, beautiful quest that takes on all sorts of twists and turns.

Murakami is a master of misdirection and foreboding. He’s clearly influenced by the hard-boiled detective fiction of Hammett and Chandler. His books often echo elements of the genre. The protagonist of A Wild Sheep Chase finds himself caught in an impersonal system of crime and corruption and driven down strange pathways on a quest he does not fully understand. Murakami takes the hazy, dream-like atmosphere of Chandler’s work and develops it into a kind of magical realist form that leaves the reader with a solved mystery but still wondering what exactly happened.

From Bradley's list on mystery where the quest goes sideways.

Quite literally a bizarre animal adventure (the original Japanese title translates to “An Adventure Surrounding Sheep”), this charming novel was my first foray into the dream-like storytelling of Murakami. Sometimes sleepy and comforting, sometimes thrilling and sometimes downright brain-bending, this tale of a couple’s mission to track down a sheep of mythic proportions had me doing laps around my house, unable to put it down, but in desperate need to get up off the couch (who else spent the holidays in lockdown?).

Speaking of lockdown, and the lack of agency many of us feel right now as we enter the…

From Becky's list on bizarre animal adventures.

If you love A Wild Sheep Chase...

Ad

Book cover of The Switch

The Switch by April McCloud,

A hundred years in the future, in a world where technologically enhanced bodies are valued above organic ones, Complete Life Management (CLM) is selling perfection in the form of the latest and greatest bionic model, the Apogee. As an elite runner and inadvertent spokesperson for the humanism movement, NYPD Detective…

Want books like A Wild Sheep Chase?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like A Wild Sheep Chase.

Browse books like A Wild Sheep Chase

Book cover of Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want
Book cover of Last Chance to See
Book cover of In the Woods

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,355

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like A Wild Sheep Chase, you might also like...

Book cover of The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island

The Widow, The Priest and The Octopus Hunter by Amy Chavez,

Amy Chavez buys an "akiya" (empty house) on a small island of 450 people in Japan's Seto Inland Sea. What she learns about the house, its previous inhabitants, and the secrets of her island neighbors leads to new understandings of an ancient culture.

Deeply rooted in their native Shinto religion,…

Book cover of Kanazawa

Kanazawa by David Joiner,

Emmitt’s plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of purchasing their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover her subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo.

In his search for a meaningful life in Japan, and after quitting his job, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Japan, quests, and sheep?

Japan 528 books
Quests 54 books
Sheep 24 books