Books Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (Author)

In the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" chapters, the unnamed protagonist is a Calcutec—a human data processor and encryption expert working for a shadowy government entity called the System. He is tasked with a cryptic assignment involving "sound removal," conducted in a hidden laboratory in Tokyo's sewer system. As the story progresses, he learns that his consciousness will soon leave this world and enter another dimension, seemingly forever.

Alternating chapters describe the narrator's experience in a surreal, isolated Town that exists inside his subconscious mind, called "The End of the World." In this dreamlike place, the narrator has been separated from his Shadow, which has been sent to die in a harsh wilderness called the Shadow Grounds. The narrator becomes the town's Dreamreader, extracting dreams from skulls of mystical beasts called unicorns, who then become mindless. He learns that to survive, he must let his Shadow escape but chooses to stay with the Librarian, a woman he grows to love.