Norwegian Wood ノルウェイの森
Noruwei no Mori

First published in Japan by
Kodansha (1987)

Published in English in 1989 by Kodansha English Library (Japan) - Translated by Alfred Birnbaum

Translated by Jay Rubin, UK - Harvill Press 2000, US - Vintage 2000

US Edition:
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage (September 12, 2000)
ISBN-10: 0375704027

UK Edition:
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage (17 May 2001)
ISBN-10: 0099448823

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But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.

excerpt available on the Random House site

synopsis

When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.

reviews / articles

Norwegian Wood in perspective

Rubber Souls - An early novel by Haruki Murakami, about late-60's love, owes a debt to the Beatles By Janice Nimura from The New York Times

Wikipedia page on the novel

Librarything page for the novel

Random House review and reading list topics

GETTING TO THE PULP OF HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NORWEGIAN WOOD:
TRANSLATABILITY AND THE ROLE OF POPULAR CULTURE - a thesis submitted by JACQUELYN L. ZUROMSKI at the University of Central Florida

NEGOTIATING PLACE: MULTISCAPES AND NEGOTIATION IN HARUKI MURAKAMI’S NORWEGIAN WOOD - a thesis submitted by KEVIN DAWSON GLADDING at the University of Central Florida

Interesting essay by Eyglo Dada Karlsdottir

I Love Murakami by Daniel Handler (from Village Voice Sept 27th 2000)

Flak Magazine Review by Clay Risen

Hanami Web review

Complete-review.com details

Interesting brief acticle (including Murakami's use of music in N.Wood) at amapedia

Independent review

Interesting review from turtleneck.net

Book Reporter review by Alison Kim

Reading Group Guide to the novel

Review by Benjamin Solah

Blogging Bookworms review

The Road Less Travelled review by Sriyansa

Rambling Librarian :: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian

Bookreporter - Review by Alison Kim

Nice Blog review by Eli Bendersky’s

Bookcrossing review by afraberg

The Bookmooch TBR Club Blog review

Murakami’s Norwegian Wood: de-romanticising the outsider by Jai Arjun Singh

Norwegian Wood - Afterword - The Self Divider has translated Murakami's afterword to the Korean edition of Norwegian Wood (which is translated in Korean as 'The Age of Loss'. Well worth checking out as it details nicely how then novel came about.