2/5 stars
How’d I find it? My spouse and I spent our honeymoon in Japan, and I borrowed this book from one of his stacks. I am new to Murakami, having only read Norwegian Wood.
Why not 3 or more stars? Murakami compiles interviews with survivors and witnesses of the sarin gas attack on several Tokyo subway trains in March 1995, contrasting them with views from individuals linked to Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that perpetrated the terrorist act. Murakami gestures at the social and cultural context of modern Japan which made the tragedy possible, but a more profound excavation fails to materialize in this journalistic endeavor.