Shekār-e gūsfand-e vaḥshī Persiska (Farsi) 2025

A Wild Sheep Chase is a novel by Haruki Murakami (1982) and the third book in the Trilogy of the Rat. It won the Noma Literary Newcomer’s Prize and is often regarded as Murakami’s first fully realized novel.

The story follows a quasi-detective narrative centered on an unnamed narrator who, in 1978, is given a strange assignment by hidden forces of power to search for a mysterious sheep marked with a star in northern Japan (Hokkaido). This quest intertwines with the disappearance of his old friend “the Rat,” surreal elements, and reflections on power, loneliness, and personal identity.

Blending magical realism, mystery, and postmodernism, the novel explores Japan’s post–World War II identity crisis. Critics have praised it as an innovative work and the starting point of Murakami’s distinctive literary style, though some have noted weaknesses in suspense or character development.