1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I put off reading this trilogy for a bit as I wanted to savor every last piece of it. I feel like that every time I get a new Haruki Murakami book.  There is something about his work that feels like you're inside a dream and thanks to the beautiful translation by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin, '1Q84' carried on that feeling.

The story centers around two main characters, Aomame and Tengo Kawana in the year 1984. Aomame is an athletic, healthy 30 year old woman who works as a personal fitness instructor.  Her highly accurate talents of manipulating and understanding the human body have lead her to become a very selective murderer for a small organisation.
Tengo Kawana is an unpublished novelist and a math teacher at a cram school. His mentor Komatsu is an editor of a publishing company and approaches Tengo with the idea to rewrite a promising manuscript called 'Air Chrysalis' by a high school student called Fuka-Eri.
Their connection is their childhood, a small amount of time spent in the same class and the holding of hands just once that creates a lasting impression on them for the rest of their lives.  Their differing situations yet special connection bring them into what appears to be a different world. A world with two moons, little people and an air chrysalis. Love also plays a huge part in this story.  I kind of felt that if you were to close your eyes and sweep away the detail, you'd find a classic tale of the trials and tribulations of finding love.  For me it was exactly that but told with the brilliant mind of Murakami, the way he sees it.

I highly recommend this trilogy to everyone. In fact I highly recommend any of his works.  I feel like you can't fully describe a Murakami book because it would be like trying to describe a dream to someone.  You can't really do it justice.