Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami

Cover Courtesy Wikipedia.org

Hear The Wind Sing
Author : Haruki Murakami
Year of Published : July 1979
Published in English : February 1987
Origin : Japan

" There aren't any real strong people anywhere. Only people who can put on a good show of being strong"

Hear the Wind Sing is first novel of the famous Japanese Author, Haruki Murakami.

Having decided that Murakami is my favorite author ever, I tried to trace back his first novel and enjoyed the time when his writing not yet matured enough.

Hear the Wind Sing is the first book of trilogy of the Rat series.

Brought back in 70's, the story telling about a boy whom spend his summer holiday in his hometown (he is a college student). The story narrated from the first point of view of 21 years old unnamed boy.

Don't imagine it like Less than Zero novel where the boy spend the days doing drug and sex. The story is flowing smooth (not really wild) where the boy spend his days sitting on a local bar that he usually went on daily basis to met his best friend.

When he is fail to meet his friend in bar, he usually only sit and observe his surrounding, about people, song, or anything else. One day he met a girl whom only have 9 fingers. Like any other Murakami's character, the girl is having troubled personality. She worked at the music store (another typical of Murakami) and at first denied to get close with the boy.

Because it is novella and have a very thin page, I can't spoil all the story in here. Overall the story line is so simple yet 'the contemplation part' is not. Even the writing style of Haruki is recognized from his very first time novel. The same protagonist character (quirky), the daydreaming- thinking, the classical music, and literature-freak part is always be the identity of Haruki Murakami.

But once again, even it is simple and thin, but Murakami always success to delivery the beautiful of human mind map.

If you want to read this book, you can download it from here!

May you like the other Murakami's novel :
Kafka on Shore
1Q84
Norwegian Wood

Or any other first person narrated novel :

1. The Perks of being Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 
2. Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
3. The Stranger by Albert Camus 
4. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton
5. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
8. The Fault of Our Stars by John Green
9. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
10. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway