Science-fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto rolled into one rip-roaring novel, 'Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following.Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy. The result is a wildly inventive fantasy and a meditation on the many uses of the mind.