Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood

Published in 1987, sold millions in Japan: Murakami fled the frenzy abroad for years.

💡 Did you know? The novel sold millions of copies in Japan and made Murakami an overnight literary pop star.

a jazz bar

With his wife Yoko: jazz has run through his entire work ever since.

💡 Did you know? Jazz still shapes Murakami's prose: song titles and rhythms run through almost every book.

at a baseball game

In the moment of a well-hit ball he knew: 'I can write a novel': from then on he wrote at night at the kitchen table.

💡 Did you know? Watching a good hit, he was suddenly struck by the thought “I could write a novel”, as he tells it.

1Q84

The title plays on Orwell's '1984': the Japanese 'Q' sounds like the digit 9.

💡 Did you know? The title plays on Orwell's “1984”: in Japanese the 9 (“kyū”) sounds like the English letter “Q.”

Kafka on the Shore

In parallel, old Nakata searches for lost cats, with whom he can talk.

💡 Did you know? The teenage hero calls himself “Kafka”: Murakami's bow to the Prague master.

everyday life meets dream world

Talking cats, two moons, well shafts into other worlds: served with spaghetti and jazz.

💡 Did you know? Murakami's trademark: from seemingly banal everyday life, characters slip almost casually into the surreal.

running

Dozens of marathons and a 100-km ultra: writing, he says, is like long-distance running.

💡 Did you know? Murakami has run marathons for decades and wrote about it in “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.”

translator

Fitzgerald, Carver, Salinger: he calls 'The Great Gatsby' his most important book.

💡 Did you know? Murakami translated Fitzgerald, Chandler and Carver into Japanese: their style rubbed off on his own.

perennial Nobel favourite

His fan base waits along at every announcement: so far in vain.

💡 Did you know? Year after year Murakami is tipped as a Nobel favourite: but he has yet to win it.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The dry well becomes a passage into other worlds, for many his masterpiece.

💡 Did you know? Sitting at the bottom of the well became an emblem of Murakami's descents into the subconscious.

a Murakami library

With manuscripts and his huge record collection: plenty of jazz, of course.

💡 Did you know? The “Waseda International House of Literature” preserves Murakami's books, manuscripts and record collection.

Kyoto

He grew up in Kobe: both parents taught Japanese literature.

💡 Did you know? The son of two teachers of Japanese literature, Murakami deliberately turned toward Western writing.

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the most widely read Japanese authors in the world. His novels blend the everyday with dream worlds into a distinctive, melancholy-surreal tone.

💡 Did you know? Murakami came to writing late: in his late twenties, after years of running a jazz bar.