The novel by the most famous author of contemporary Japanese prose, the main literary sensation of the new century—“the master’s magnum opus” and “a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Japanese culture today,” according to critics. The action of the book takes place not so much in nineteen eighty-four as in eighteen eighty-four: in a world where some see two moons in the sky, where the key to eternal love is a “Little Symphony” by Janáček, where after a nationwide shootout with sectarians the police are reequipped with automatic pistols instead of revolvers, where LittlePeople—“Little People”—come out of the mouth of a dead goat and weave a Heavenly Air Cocoon.