In 1981, Murkami left for the island of Hokkaido in order to collect material for the future book A Wild Sheep Chase. READ: “Flowers for Algernon”: meaning and analysis of the book by Arkady and Daniel Keyes The hero returns again to where he came from, left with a “broken trough”. At first, he meets a pretty girl, but she quickly bothers him and disappears from his life. Then he seeks to assert himself at the expense of his work partner and his wife, bringing misfortune to their family. Then a fantastic image appears that has arisen from another reality – the image of a Sheep with its supernatural abilities. There is a struggle between their coexistence, aimed at the survival of the fittest.Ī distinctive feature of the novel is that it practically does not use names, the author calls his characters like this: “the main character”, or according to their occupation or features of character and appearance. In the center of the novel, the image of the Sheep Man appears, which symbolizes the departing human spirit, he is the owner of the Evil Empire he created himself and must soon die along with his Empire. His name is Sensei, he is old, and most importantly seriously ill – for many years a giant tumor has been growing in his head, incompatible with human life. Because of this, monstrous hallucinations arise in his inflamed brain, and he himself seemed to be reborn into a different creature. In these hallucinations, the image of a sheep appears to him, the photographic image of which is found by the protagonist of the novel. Soon Sensei still dies, he is replaced by the character of the Rat, into which the spirit of the Sheep should move.

A wild sheep chase trilogy