altheaann

Good, but not as excellent a "A Wild Sheep Chase."

I wasn't convinced that a sequel was completely necessary. Of course, it wasn't unwelcome either. It just didn't strike me with that 'truly amazing' quality that the previous one did.

I'd be interested to read the two related novels that preceded these two, but apparently they're very hard to find in English, and Murakami himself doesn't like them much.

Here, the main character from 'Sheep' is back, and haunted by the bizarre events related in the previous book. He's searching for the enigmatic girlfriend who walked out on him (she of the most beautiful ears in the world), but is distracted by a desk clerk at the fancy new modern hotel tower that has replaced the dilapidated old inn called the Dolphin Hotel. The new hotel may old secrets as well, however... and may eve be haunted by something similar to what it replaced.

Bring in a childhood friend who's know a high-flying but depressed celebrity, and a murdered call girl... and something hovering in the interstice between a treaty on metaphysics and a murder mystery ensues...