This is a release of Murakami's first two novels Here the Wind Sing and Pinball which had not been translated to English before this publication. Both are about the same unnamed narrator and his friend Rat who has a tangential role in the stories. The first book is a bit rambling and never seems to focus on a plot but involves the narrator's life as a college student and his encounters with a nine fingered young woman. In the second, the narrator is a few years older, living with an odd pair of nameless twins he refers to as numbers and working as a translator. He develops an odd and brief obsession with a particular pinball machine called "Spaceship" eventually finding it in a massive and somewhat scary warehouse of machines owned by a collector. His friend Rat, meanwhile seems to spend his time drinking beer and pondering his life situation throughout both books. An new introduction by Murakami describes how he came to write these first books which ultimately led to an amazing career as an internationally recognized author. The introduction and Pinball are arguably the better parts of this compilation.
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