Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world : a novel / Haruki Murakami ; translated by Alfred Birnbaum

"Originally published in Japanese under the title Sekai no owari to hādo-boirudo wandārando by Shinchosha Ltd"--Title page verso

The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark "replacement" consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow

Elevator, silence, overweight -- Golden beasts -- Rain gear INKlings, laundry -- The library -- Tabulations, evolution, sex drive -- Shadow -- Skull, Lauren Bacall, library -- The colonel -- Appetite, disappointment, Leningrad -- The wall -- Dressing, watermelon, chaos -- A map of the end of the world -- Frankfurt, door, independent operants -- Woods -- Whiskey, torture, Turgenev -- The coming of winter -- End of the world, Charlie Parker, time bomb -- Dreamreading -- Hamburgers, skyline, deadline -- The death of the beasts -- Bracelets, Ben Johnson, devil -- Gray smoke -- Holes, leeches, tower -- Shadow grounds -- Meal, elephant factory, trap -- Power station -- Encyclopedia wand, immortality, paperclips -- Musical instruments -- Lake, Masaomi Kondo, panty hose -- Hole -- Fares, police, detergent -- Shadow in the throes of death -- Rainy-day laundry, car rental, Bob Dylan -- Skulls -- Nail clippers, butter sauce, iron vase -- Accordion -- Lights, introspection, cleanliness -- Escape -- Popcorn, Lord Jim, extinction -- Birds

In English, translated from the Japanese