1Q84 - Book One and Book Two (First UK edition - first impression)

Haruki Murakami (Translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin)

ISBN 10: 1846554071 / ISBN 13: 9781846554070

Published by Harvill Secker, London, 2011

About this Item

First impression of the first UK edition, with the full-number-string sequence including the no. "1": 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 on the printer's page. Translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin. ***A near fine copy in black paper-covered boards, with gilt titles to the spine. No discernible faults - just very light marks to the matt surface of the boards. No bumps or creases. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges clean. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. No foxing. Pages clean. Black front and rear endpapers. ***In a near fine colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £20.00. The dustwrapper also has no discernible faults. No creases, chips or tears. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***623 pages plus one-page of acknowledgements at the back of the book. 242mm x 158mm. ***'The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo. Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a standstill, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***'"1Q84" is a dystopian novel written by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, first published in three volumes in Japan in 2009?10. It covers a fictionalized year of 1984 in parallel with a "real" one. The novel is a story of how a woman named Aomame begins to notice strange changes occurring in the world. She is quickly enraptured in a plot involving Sakigake, a religious cult, her childhood love, Tengo, and embarks on a journey to discover what is "real". Its first printing sold out on the day it was released and sales reached a million within a month. The English-language edition of all three volumes, with the first two volumes translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, was released in North America and the United Kingdom on October 25, 2011. (Wiki) ***First impression of the first UK edition, in its original dustwrapper, in near fine, bright and crisp condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 9245

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 1Q84 - Book One and Book Two (First UK edition - first impression)
• Publisher: Harvill Secker, London
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846554071
• ISBN 13: 9781846554070
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First UK Edition
• Printing: First Impression
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions
  • Literature in Translation

About this title

Synopsis

Haruki Murakami is an international phenomenon. When Books One and Two of his latest masterpiece, 1Q84, were published in Japan, a million copies were sold in one month, and the critical acclaim that ensued was reported all over the globe. Readers were transfixed by the mesmerising story of Aomame and Tengo and the strange parallel universe they inhabit. Then, one year later, to the surprise and delight of his readers, Murakami published an unexpected Book Three, bringing the story to a close.

In order to reflect the experience of 1Q84's first readers, Harvill Secker is publishing Books One and Two in one beautifully designed volume and Book Three in a separate edition. A long-awaited treat for his fans, 1Q84 is also a thrilling introduction to the unique world of Murakami's imagination. This hypnotically addictive novel is a work of startling originality and, as the title suggests, a mind-bending ode to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. (The number 9 in Japanese is pronounced like the letter 'Q').

The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.

Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a stand-still, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.

Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?

Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.

About the Author

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was twenty-nine and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, that turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon.

In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, First Person Singular and The City and Its Uncertain Walls Murakami's distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring his place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.