An owl and three pussycats

By Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen

Book Overview

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame 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. As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector. A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's -- 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689308574
• ISBN13: 9780689308574
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Atheneum
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Age Range: 4 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

Great low key story about wild and not quite tame animals

This wonderful story is part of a series of books the authors have written on Maple Hill farm. The books are written in a simple, low key style about how real animals seen on and around a farm act. The illustrations are also simple but colorful drawings of the characters. This book's plot appears superficial but proves deeper in subtle way that enhances its appeal for adults: a storm fells an old oak, leaving an abandoned owlet which is adopted by the farm family and then trained and released because "you can't own an owl." A parallel story tells of three farm cats who each have their own "personalities". The authors contrast them but the avoid personification of the animals and end the book by questioning whether you can really own a cat either.