Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

is a 1985 novel by Japan writer Haruki Murakami. The English translation by Alfred Birnbaum was released in 1991. A strange and dreamlike novel, its chapters alternate between two bizarre narratives - the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland' and 'The End of the World' parts. The odd numbered chapters take place in the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland,' where the narrator is a "Calcutec," a human data processor/encryption system who uses the unique characteristics of his mind as the encryption key. The Calcutecs — perhaps short for Calculating Technician — work for the quasi-governmental System, as opposed to the criminal Semiotecs who work for the Factory and who are generally fallen Calcutecs. The relationship between the two groups is simple: the System protects data while the Semiotecs steal it, although later in the novel it is revealed that they may be two branches of a single institution. The narrator completes work for a mysterious scientist, who is exploring "sound reduction." He works within a... full article at wikipedia