As a teenager, the boy fell in love with the girl who eventually confessed that the real her came from a different reality. When the girl disappeared from his life, his world crumbled and he plodded through his existence wishing he could find the strange world she claimed she came from. Her strange world became so real to him that he wondered if he was his real self or only his shadow.

This is Murakami at his best. He weaves the two worlds together and apart through the boy who becomes a man without the reader being sure of what is reality and what might be a dream until we arrive at the unpredictable ending. I couldn’t put this book down.

• Other Asian 5 out of 5s