風の歌を聴け

Not bad for Murakami's first novel, but he has written way better

Murakami's first novel. Definitely not his greatest work, but still features a deep and introspective look into manhood and growing up that Murakami is famous for. This was my first time reading a novel entirely in Japanese, so it definitely was a challenge, considering all the literary language and having no furigana. However, the vocab used is still pretty common since 風の歌 is a real-world story. It is also on the shorter side which I thought would make it easier to digest. I would probably recommend something easier as your first novel though.