Though finally happy in her life in New York, Jasmine soon finds herself in danger when she spots one of the terrorists involved in the bombing that killed her husband in India in a park in New York. As a result, she moves to Iowa, marries Bud Ripplemeyer, raises an adopted child named Du with him, and even finds herself pregnant. However, Iowan life proves to be much more complex than initially expected, for Bud gets shot, which leads to his paralysis from the waist down. In turn, Jasmine finds herself, once again, leading an unsatisfying life.

Sam Pagliuca 

With the help of Lillian Gordon, a woman who helps Jasmine assimilate to life in America, Jasmine finds herself in New York, where she lives with Professor Devinder Vadhera, her deceased husband's former teacher. Upon her arrival at Vadhera’s home, Jasmine soon realizes that her exclusion from American life appears to be beginning yet again. Specifically, she “finds herself stifled by the inertia of this home for it was completely isolated from everything American” (Sharma 34).

The destination of the first walk Watanabe and Naoko take together in the novel. Here they eat noodles together near Komagome Station.

The walks that Watanabe and Naoko take in Norwegian Wood are central to their relationship. Their first walk begins where they leave the train in Yotsuya and it ends in Komagome.

The location of Ami Hostel, the fictional sanatorium where Watanabe’s love interest dwells for the second half of the novel is in the mountains of Kyoto. The trek that characters make to and from the hospital are representative of a journey towards death.

Protagonist Watanabe works at a record store in Shinjuku, an eccentric Tokyo neighborhood, for much of the novel. Music is essential to the relationships that characters build with each other, including the novel’s namesake, “Norwegian Wood” by The Beatles.  

This is where the protagonist of Hakuri Murakami’s Norwegian Wood lives and studies throughout the novel. Murakami himself attended the school in the 60s, when anti-imperialist student protests were very common on this school’s campus.