Toru Okada and Kumiko lived a quiet and happy home life for six years. Then their cat disappears and a series of odd things entice reality: women in the middle of nowhere who ask for phone sex, alleys that don't have entrances and exits, astrologers who always wear red vinyl hats, luxurious uninhabited houses and dry wells, mysterious laundry who likes to listen to music, and the sound of spring birds from neighboring yards. In the middle of Toru's journey in search of cats, he encounters increasingly strange things and people and is dragged into an adventure to face the dark forces that are squirming. Translated directly from Japanese, the Chronicle of the Spring Bird contains about 25,000 words condensed in the English edition. The novel won the prestigious Yomiuri Literary Prize and the award was presented by Kenzaburo Oe, Haruki Murakami's sharpest critic.