Characters in this novel regularly whistle the overture to The Thieving Magpie.
This novel's climax, which is briefly interrupted by a letter about the "duck people", sees its protagonist beat a shadowy figure to death with a baseball bat in room 208. Its protagonist is assisted by the mute Cinnamon and his mother Nutmeg, who notices a blue-black mark on the protagonist's cheek. Boris the Manskinner appears in some flashback sections of this novel, which detail the Nomonhan incident and are narrated by Lieutenant (*) Mamiya. Its protagonist receives many letters from May Kasahara, who first shows him the dried-up well. Characters in this novel regularly whistle the overture to The Thieving Magpie. Its plot is set in motion by a search for the missing cat Noboru Wataya, and soon thereafter the protagonist's wife Kumiko disappears as well. For 10 points, name this 1995 novel about Toru Okada, a work of Haruki Murakami.
This novel's climax, which is briefly interrupted by a letter about the "duck people", sees its protagonist beat a shadowy figure to death with a baseball bat in room 208.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle [or Nejimaki-dori Kuronikuru]