Chapter summaries The City and Its Uncertain Walls Haruki Murakami

Chapter 16 Summary: The Walled Town and Lost Letters

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with the narrator, age seventeen, remembering the summer he spent with a sixteen-year-old girl. They held hands, kissed when no one was looking, and talked endlessly about a mysterious town surrounded by a twenty-six-foot wall built of hard bricks. The girl described the town in vivid detail: a single river divided it; three stone bridges crossed the water; the only gate—the north gate—was guarded by a burly Gatekeeper who let beasts (unicorns) in and out twice a day. The beasts had single sharp horns, ate only leaves and nuts from a special tree, and never harmed anyone. Inside the wall, humans had no shadows, but beasts and everything else did. The town was split into a Workers’ District and an Officials’ District, and the residents used canola oil for light and cooking, had running water from a spring, and grew their own food.

The narrator wrote every detail in a special notebook because he wanted to preserve the shared imaginary world. The girl said her “real” self still lived in that town, working in the library. That autumn her letters stopped. After more than a month, he called her house. A middle-aged man answered and hung up without speaking. The narrator grew anxious, doubting whether the girl’s stories were true. All he could hold onto was his notebook and the memory of the town. He spent the winter waiting, imagining the river willows and the scent of Scotch broom leaves. Time passed slowly. Finally, a thick envelope from her arrived.

Key Events

  • The narrator and the girl spend summer days holding hands, kissing, and discussing a walled town.
  • The girl describes the town’s geography, architecture, unicorns, gatekeeper, and social structure.
  • The narrator writes everything in a notebook to make the town “palpably real.”
  • The girl reveals that her “real self” lives inside the town and works in the library.
  • In autumn, her letters stop; the narrator continues writing but receives no replies.
  • He calls her house seven times; on the seventh attempt a man answers and hangs up.
  • The narrator becomes consumed by worry and doubt, questioning whether the girl’s accounts were true.
  • He clings to his notebook and revisits the town in his imagination through the winter.
  • A thick letter from the girl finally arrives.

Character Development

  • The Narrator (seventeen-year-old boy): He transforms from an infatuated teenager into a brooding, obsessive young man. His need to document every detail shows a desire to anchor a fleeting, uncertain love in concrete facts. Losing contact pushes him to doubt reality itself, yet he refuses to let go of the shared world.
  • The Girl (sixteen-year-old “you”): She remains a mysterious figure whose reliability is questioned. Her enthusiastic descriptions of the town hint at a deep inner life or a dissociation from this world. The silence that follows her last letter leaves her motives and well-being ambiguous.
  • The Middle-Aged Man: A brief but chilling presence. His silent hanging up suggests the girl’s household is hostile or that something has happened to her. He serves as a gatekeeper of a different sort.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Memory and Documentation: The narrator’s notebook is a physical anchor for a story that might otherwise dissolve. It symbolizes the human need to preserve what is fragile and ephemeral.
  • Reality vs. Imagination: The town may be a shared fantasy, a memory of a past life, or a psychological escape. The narrator’s later doubts underscore how thin the line is between truth and invention.
  • Time and Patience: Autumn, winter, and the slow passage of ordinary time contrast with the timelessness of the walled town. The narrator learns that time moves forward and cannot be rewound.
  • Loss and Longing: The abrupt silence after the intimate summer creates a void. The narrator’s fixation on the town becomes a way to hold onto the girl after she is gone.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter lays the imaginative bedrock for the novel’s central mystery: the walled town. It establishes the town’s rules (no shadows, no outsiders, solitary gate, unicorns) and ties them directly to the narrator’s relationship with the girl. It also introduces the emotional crisis that drives the narrator forward—the unexplained silence, the hung-up phone, the obsessive waiting. Without this chapter, the reader would not understand why the narrator is so determined to enter that town later in the book.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does the narrator take notes on the girl’s descriptions of the town?
    Answer: He wants to record every detail precisely so that the town remains a shared reality between them. He believes writing it down will prevent mistakes and preserve what belongs only to the two of them.

  2. What is the significance of humans having no shadows inside the walled town?
    Answer: The absence of shadows suggests that the residents exist in a different state—perhaps as reflections, memories, or souls. It also ties into the rule that one needs a shadow to survive outside the wall, implying shadowlessness is a condition of permanent residency.

  3. How does the narrator’s reaction to the stopped letters reveal his character?
    Answer: He first convinces himself to be patient, then grows anxious, repeatedly calls, and finally sinks into doubt. His inability to let go shows how deeply attached he is, but also his vulnerability when faced with uncertainty. He clings to the notebook and the town as a substitute for the girl.

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