1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 (One Q Eighty-Four or ichi-kyu-hachi-yon) is a novel written by Haruki Murakami, published in three volumes in Japan in 2009–10. The novel quickly became a sensation, reaching sales of one million within a month. The English version of all three volumes, with the first two volumes translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, was released on October 25, 2011

The Story, the year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. The story begins with a young woman named Aomame in business attire on her way to an appointment in Tokyo. Her taxi gets stuck in a traffic jam on an elevated highway, and the cabbie suggests that if she’s really anxious to arrive on time, she might want to climb down a nearby utility access ladder and jump on the subway. She follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84, (Q is for ‘question mark). A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

“Murakami is like a magician who explains what he’s doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers . . . But while anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves.' The New York Times Book Review.