The 1995 nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult gave rise to Haruki Murakami's first non-fiction work, Underground, and now the novelist has admitted that they also inspired his new novel 1Q84. The book was published in Japan last month to huge anticipation – Murakami had refused to reveal the plot after leaked details about his 2002 novel Kafka on the Shore were said to h