Little People take over Big Brother

A MILLION copies of Haruki Murakami's latest novel sold in the first week of sales in Japan. Now Australians can find out what all the hype is about.

ENTER the world of 1Q84 with trepidation, for things are not what they seem.

Published in three volumes in Japan and released as 1000-page book here, this novel is trademark Murakami - strange, sexy and surreal.

A slow-mo fantasy thriller, Book 1 feels like highly stylised Kabuki theatre, with elaborate character descriptions, oblique dialogue and a languid pace tempering the typical adrenalin rush of genre fiction.

But by Book 2 you are well and truly in Murakami's grip.

The title is a play on George Orwell's famous political allegory, but Murakami is more interested in the psychological and metaphysical ambiguity of religion, cults, love, and writing.

Set in Tokyo in 1984, myotherapist Aomame is hired by a wealthy septuagenarian to assassinate brutal husbands of rescued battered women.

Aomame, who is about to turn 30, relieves her tension by having casual sex with partially bald men, but her heart belongs to a boy whose hand she held intensely and briefly as a 10-year-old.

She starts to noticed anomalies in recent events and replaces the nine of 1984 with a Q for question mark to distinguish between the present world and former world.

The narrative alternates between her and her long-lost love interest, Tengo, a maths prodigy turned cram-school teacher who aspires to be an author.

His friend, the enigmatic editor Komatsu, talks him into fraudulently rewriting a clumsy though compelling fantasy written by 17-year-old dyslexic Fuka-Eri, to help her win a competition.

The book Air Chrysalis, about the ominous Little People who the strangely emotionless Fuka-Eri believes are real, becomes a bestseller.

Unlike the rewriting of history in 1984, Air Chrysalis rewrites the future for Tengo and Aomame who find themselves drawn into the same strange paradigm.

Murakami's fans will recognise character, musical and thematic riffs from previous novels and short stories and may be disappointed that the book doesn't quite live up to the ``magnum opus'' hype.

The novel is brimming with great descriptions, dialogue and characters, but sometimes falls flat, as with Aomame's implausible dating buddy Ayumi.

On the other hand, the Little People's creepy messenger Mr Ushikawa looms large.

Billed as an ode to Orwell, it's equally a tribute to Anton Chekhov and other great storytellers.

This review is based on a preview copy of Book 1 and II, and I'm on tenterhooks waiting for the complete book to be released on November 1.

The film adaptation of Murakami's bestseller Norwegian Wood should bolster interest in this novel, which is recommended for those looking to fill the vacuum left by Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy

Blanche Clark's verdict: spellbinding