The most famous living Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, has achieved through this novel a distinguished mixture between
adventure, psychology and humor, without leaving out the fiction. He tells the story of a young advertiser in quest of a sheep; but not any sheep, one having
fantastic powers over the man who is possessed by it. The problem shows up when the sheep deserts its human host and sucks away all its energy, leaving him to experience the emptiness felt after an intense emotion. With a mediocre life and global existence the young man finds himself thrown in this adventure that awakes his spirit and curiosity. Traveling from Tokyo to Hokkaidō in quest of this fantastic sheep, along with his girl-friend with perfect ears, the young man finally meets at the end of his journey an old friend perished some time before and this fantastic sheep. This novel belongs to the “
Trilogy of the Rat”, being the third part of it: Pinball, 1973, A wild sheep chase. A sort of follow-up of this trilogy is considered to be the novel “Dance, dance, dance”, but it may also be seen separately. From the very beginning up to the end of this fantastic novel you feel like the author describes a complete different world, one in which symbols are part of everyday life mixing with ancient rituals and routines. One may say that “A Wild Sheep Chase” is just a weird fantastic novel, but the symbols give it a deeper more meaningful level of reading, an allegorical one. “Reading Murakami has been described feeling like you''ve just awakened from a deep sleep and you aren’t sure if you''re still dreaming. These are fascinating, engrossing books that will leave you full of ideas and impressions to dwell on for a long time to come.” (David Mazzota)