Bigbother

The Chinese edition of the much-anticipated third volume of popular writer Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 has just been published, in which the author gives a seemingly simple ending to the story of the fantastical world in the year 1Q84 - while the various tricks and mysteries posed in the final installment invoke readers to wonder if a fourth one could be on the way.

"If you read the third volume repeatedly, sure, you will have different feelings. To me, it is a novel different from the previous two," said the intensely private Murakami, who made an exception last year to have a 12-hour-long interview with Japanese media.

Acknowledged as classic Murakami, 1Q84 Book 3 continues the storyline begun in the first two installments, described as a "complex and surreal narration of shifts back and forth between tales of two characters, a man and a woman who are searching for each other."

In the year 1Q84, in a world where two parallel moons appear in the night sky, Murakami unfolds a mystery thriller, in which a cult leader is killed and the suspect, a lead character called Aomame, a gym trainer, also disappears. Meanwhile, her long lost friend Tengo, a cram-school teacher, is also in search of her.

Known for capturing the absurdity and loneliness of modern life, the prolific 62-year-old writer and translator interweaves death, fetish, humor and pop references into his latest work while exploring themes mined in previous volumes; he goes on to discuss social and emotional issues such as cult religions, violence, family ties and love.

Magnum opus 1Q84, with a first printing of the first two volumes selling out the day they were released in 2009, is believed to be a tribute to George Orwell's 1984 as, in Japanese, "q" sounds the same as the number 9.