I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...
She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?

Torou Watanabe doesn't need the scent of any madeleine, the lyrics and music of the Beatles are enough to unleash his memory, uncontrollably, and to retrieve pieces of himself from the distant past. Guided by the melody, Torou remembers Naoko, his first great love - and the girl of his best friend. Naoko loved this song and who can say if it is the woman or the music - or both - that bring to Torou images of his student life, twenty years ago, in Tokyo, the intense era of passions, eroticism, and sex, but also the era of frustration, unfortunate desires, and loss.

It is the time when Midori, the woman-enigma and dilemma, the woman-landmark who taught young Torou Watanabe what it means to choose between the future and the past, sweeps into his life.

Deeply existential and paradoxically realistic, the great Haruki Murakami in this most human of his novels sets up a sorrowful, nostalgic celebration for lost youth and the love that constantly slips away, yet never deprives us of the sweetness of its anticipation.