Haruki Murakami has long been a global literary phenomenon. In Vietnam, the writer has left a deep impression on readers through many famous novels such as Norwegian Forest, Kafka on the Coast or 1Q84.
With the Vietnamese version of the new novel City and Uncertain Wards, author Haruki Murakami continues to affirm his persistent creativity and the ability to renew himself after more than 4 decades of writing.
City and Uncertain Wards is a unique combination of the familiar surrealist quality and the experience of a pen-taking life, thereby opening a unique dialogue between Murakami in the past and Murakami in the present.
The City and Uncertain Wards is an important milestone, where Haruki Murakami dialogues with himself, thereby sending readers a journey that is both mysterious and permeable about memories, loneliness and invisible walls deep in the soul.
The City and Uncertain Wards is a rare case in the career of writer Haruki Murakami. The work originated from a short story he wrote in his youth, then expanded to a short novel published in 1980, but was "forgotten" by the author himself for decades.
By re-writing an old work, Haruki Murakami wants to verify how me of today will respond to me of the sixteenth and twenties. Therefore, The City and the Uncertain Wards contains a strange energy: In the open, the most profound, but no less profound and profound.
Behind the surreal shell, City and Uncertain Wards still touches many issues that are very close to todays readers. First of all, loneliness in modern society. Whether living together in bustling cities or densely populated areas, people can easily feel lost, disoriented and unconnected with each other.
The author has created an image of a city without memories, where all living beings exist but do not realize what they are living for, and this space itself reflects the emptiness and loneliness within each person.
The main character, a mature man, returns to the place of a broken 17th grade love, carrying with him vaguely remembered memories, unresolved questions and a lingering loneliness that has never been called out.
Through his lens, readers can see themselves in seemingly normal but truly lonely moments, the feeling of standing in the crowd but still lost, or even when being next to a relative is still empty. From there, the work reflects the universal experience of people in modern society, where loneliness is something that everyone can recognize and sympathize with.
The City and Uncertain Wards is not only a journey of an unknown character searching for love and the meaning of life, but also a spiritual experience where readers are invited to dialogue with blurred memories, invisible walls in the soul, and even the pain that they have tried to hide.
Haruki Murakami (born in 1949) is one of the most well-known contemporary Japanese writers. His works often wander deep into loneliness, the obsession of memories, love and the journey to find a place to return to the modern city.
The author's works have been translated into more than 50 languages, sold millions of copies worldwide and won many prestigious literary awards.
With the ability to combine realism and mystery, individual and universal, Murakami has affirmed its special position in world literature, becoming a cultural phenomenon beyond the scope of literature.
