Idiot's guide to Murakami's 1Q84

It's so tiring to be a non-conformist like everyone else, but Our Man does like a little Haruki Murakami, like the rest of the J-hip folks. Now, the blogo-whatsit and MSM are all going ape about his latest novel in two books - IQ84 - and you can read all about the lack of marketing and the sales figures and so on, and probably have already, by popping over to Raw Japan here, but if (like Our Man) your Japanese ain't up to actually reading the darn thing, here's a little non-spoiler dip into its pages, care of a writer friend of Our Man's who was laid up in hospital for a week and had enough time on her hands, and ability, to read both books, twice.

The novel is set in 1984 and has a parallel story world set in 1Q84, a world with two moons.

It features a hero who is an aspiring writer and a trademark suicidal heroine.

The novel is concerned with cults.

Our intrepid characters get stuck in the parallel fantasy world.

So far, so Murakami. But, there are no well shafts in the book.

And, despite cursory reviews that find it merely rehashes his other work, actually it does break new ground - Murakami delves seriously into family relationships for the first time.

Given away too much? Don't worry, Our Man's Japanese reader (and loads of folk on Amazon) reckons there must be a sequel to tie up the dangling plot threads.