1Q84 Books 1 & 2 by Haruki Murakami

Murakami introduces us to a cast of characters that are deeply moral and indeed gentle, ironic given that two of them are killers. As Aomame is on the Tokyo expressway in a taxi snarled in traffic the suggestion by the driver that she climb down the emergency stairway to make her appointment on time is the beginning of a shift, she is pitched into a new world, from 1984 to 1Q84, a world in which there are two moons. She makes her appointment, to dispatch a beater of women into the next world with a delicate touch, and remembers her past, her upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness and a boy, Tengo, whom she has never seen since elementary school but is drawn to. We alternate between her narrative and that of Tengo, a maths teacher at a Tokyo cramming school and part time writer, a man with a weekly lover but who is haunted by his memories of Aomame and unable to form any other permanent relationships with women. He is engaged to ghost edit the work of a young 17 year old girl and is pitched into a strange world of supernatural forces. Though slow to start, I really enjoyed being immersed in Japanese culture which in its reticence and attention to manners is similar to the British psyche, and by the end of the second book I was completely hooked. Can't wait for the third one