Norwegian Wood
Thirty-seven-year-old Toru Watanabe hears a Beatles song on a plane landing in Hamburg and is pulled back to Tokyo in 1969, where, as a college student, he reconnected with Naoko, the fragile former girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki, who had killed himself a few years earlier. The novel traces Toru's attachments to Naoko, who cycles in and out of a sanatorium in the mountains, and to the vivid, impatient Midori in Tokyo, while campus unrest and the music of his generation drift through the background. Haruki Murakami wrote Norwegian Wood as his one concession to straight realism, and it remains his most widely read book in Japan, a quiet study of grief in one's twenties.
Where Norwegian Wood keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Also by Haruki Murakami
Books in conversation with Norwegian Wood
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about Norwegian Wood
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Watching a plane land in Hamburg in his late thirties, Toru Watanabe is sent back to his college years in late-1960s Tokyo, his dead friend Kizuki, his fragile girlfriend Naoko, and the bright stranger named Midori.
Yes. Norwegian Wood is widely cited as a strong entry point to Haruki Murakami because it is realist rather than magical-realist, focused on a love triangle in 1960s Tokyo. Many of Murakami's signature themes appear without his more elaborate fantasy elements.
Yes. A 2010 Japanese film adaptation directed by Tran Anh Hung was released internationally. It received mixed reviews but is widely considered a faithful interpretation of the novel's tone.
Norwegian Wood was written by Haruki Murakami, published in 1987 by The Harvill Press.
Norwegian Wood is 389 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Norwegian Wood takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Norwegian Wood is a standalone novel by Haruki Murakami, not part of a series.
Norwegian Wood is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
