Duncan Brown

Don't be put off by the one thousand plus pages that make up this terrific tome. 1Q84 is a dystopian epic like no other, highlighting the minutiae and mundanity of everyday life in 1980s Japan. Murakami weaves them together with sensation and surrealism to tell a story of star-crossed lovers gravitating toward each other in a parallel world where cults, childhood trauma and injustice keeps them apart at a great distance.