Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters take place in the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland', although the phrase is not used anywhere in the text, only in page headers. The narrator is a "Calcutec" (計算士, keisanshi), a human data processor/encryption system who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. The Calcutecs work for the quasi-governmental System, as opposed to the criminal "Semiotecs" (記号士, kigōshi) who work for the Factory and who are generally fallen Calcutecs. The relationship between the two groups is simple: the System protects data while the Semiotecs steal it, although it is suggested that one man might be behind both. The narrator completes an assignment for a mysterious scientist, who is exploring "sound removal". He works in a laboratory hidden within an anachronistic version of Tokyo's sewer system. The narrator eventually learns that he only has a day and a half before his consciousness leaves the world he knows and delves forever into the world that has been created in his subconscious mind. According to the scientist, to the outside world this change will seem instantaneous, but in the Calcutec's mind, his time within this world will seem almost infinite.

The even-numbered chapters deal with a newcomer to "The End of the World", a strange, isolated Town, depicted in the frontispiece map as being surrounded by a perfect and impenetrable wall. The narrator is in the process of being accepted into the Town. His Shadow has been "cut off" and this Shadow lives in the "Shadow Grounds" where he is not expected to survive the winter. Residents of the Town are not allowed to have a shadow, and, it transpires, do not have a mind. The narrator is assigned quarters and a job as the current "Dreamreader": a process intended to remove the traces of mind from the Town. He goes to the Library every evening where, assisted by the Librarian, he learns to read dreams from the skulls of unicorns. These "beasts" passively accept their role, sent out of the Town at night to their enclosure, where many die of cold during the winter. It gradually becomes evident that this Town is the world inside of the narrator from the Hard-Boiled Wonderland's subconscious (the password he uses to control different aspects of his mind is even 'end of the world'). The narrator grows to love the Librarian while he discovers the secrets of the Town, and although he plans to escape the Town with his Shadow, he later goes back on his word and allows his Shadow to escape the Town alone.

The two storylines converge, exploring concepts of consciousness, the subconscious or unconscious mind, and identity.

In the original Japanese, the narrator uses the more formal first-person pronoun watashi to refer to himself in the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" narrative and the more intimate boku in the "End of the World". Translator Alfred Birnbaum achieved a similar effect in English by putting the 'End of the World' sections in the present tense.[1]

In both narratives, none of the characters are named. Each is instead referred to by occupation or a general description, such as "the Librarian" or "the Big Guy."

Murakami has often referred to his love of Western literature and particular admiration for hard-boiled pioneer Raymond Chandler.[2] "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" owes much to American "hard-boiled" detective fiction, as well as to science fiction and cyberpunk, but the book does not belong in any of those categories.

The "end of the world" has much in common with The Castle by Franz Kafka.[3] Both deal with newcomers to strange villages who are both intrigued and horrified by the behavior of the villagers. The image of losing one's shadow when approaching the end of the world is found in Knut Hamsun's 1898 novel Victoria. The same idea appeared earlier, in both the 1814 story of "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" ("Peter Schlemihl's Remarkable Story") by Adelbert von Chamisso and Hans Christian Andersen's The Shadow from 1847. The theme of the human brain storing encrypted data is found in William Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic, but in interviews Murakami says this was not an influence. The theme of dream hacking is found in Roger Zelazny's The Dream Master (1966).[4]

Jay Rubin, who has translated many of Murakami's later works into English, said that Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is his favorite Murakami novel and that it "is just a shock after reading the black and white, autobiographical fiction that is such the norm in Japan."[5]

The novel has received critical acclaim both domestically and internationally receiving praise from literary critics published in magazines such as The Japan Times,[6] Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews.[7]

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was awarded the Tanizaki Prize in 1985.

The book has been cited by filmmaker Rian Johnson as one of his favorite science fiction books and as an influence on his 2012 film Looper.[8]

Murakami himself stated that Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is his favorite among the books he wrote.[9]

The "End of the World" narrative is one of the inspirations for Yoshitoshi ABe in creating his Haibane Renmei, originally produced as a manga and later adapted as an anime series. Both works contain a city that people are not allowed to leave, a wall, a river, a library and a clock tower.[10]

• "End of the World", Exorcising Ghosts (links to reviews and articles), UK.
• Critics, 2005-10-24, archived from the original (review) on 2007-03-21.