It’s always an awesome surprise when a big parcel comes in through the post and even better when it’s from the Type Directors Club. This is their latest offering,a culmination of last year’s best typography from all around the world. Celebrated entries from the TDC’s annual competition show daring, relevant and even thought-provoking designs where typefaces take centre stage. This gorgeous volume is immaculately printed, transparent and gold foiled on the cover and a proud addition to any font and coffee table book collector’s book shelf.

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The notion of true love made possible by a conspiracy of strange and unknown forces is not unfamiliar ground for Murakami, who earlier explored this same idea from a philosophical perspective in ‘On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning’ (from the short story collectionThe Elephant Vanishes): “What a wonderful thing it is,” he writes, “to find and be found by your 100% perfect other; it’s a miracle, a cosmic miracle.” With 1Q84, Murakami conjures up this ‘miracle’, complete with wild and fantastical other-realities, spun through his signature all-kooky cast of characters.

Set in a weird parallel universe, 1Q84 is a journey of suspenseful twists sometimes disturbing turns with Murakami’s endearing style of converging subplots gathering into a mad momentum as we race to the finish. Not since Dance, Dance, Dance and Kafka on the Shore have we seen more sinister villains and sexier heroines crossing paths with the writer’s always solo underdog-hero. Many will find Murakami’s fearsome three-book epic pushing a dangerous boundary with1Q84 but I’d say this might well be his most romantic yet.

(This review was published online by Readings Books Australia)

If you are in Australia, you can purchase this from Readings.

Or here on Amazon: 1Q84