Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami
村上 春樹
Murakami in 2018
Murakami in 2018
Born (1949-01-12) January 12, 1949 (age 75)
Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan[a]
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • short-story writer
  • essayist
  • translator
LanguageJapanese
Alma materWaseda University (BA)
PeriodContemporary
Genres
Literary movement
Notable works
Signature
Website
www.harukimurakami.com

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹, Murakami Haruki, born January 12, 1949[1]) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages[2] and having sold millions of copies outside Japan.[3][4] He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.[5][6][7][8]

Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years.[9] His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts.[10] His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements.[11][12] His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers.[9][13] Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020),[14] and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.[15]

His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world".[16][17][18] Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.[19][20]


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  1. ^ "UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021". United Press International. January 12, 2021. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2021. … author Haruki Murakami in 1949 (age 72)
  2. ^ Curtis Brown (2014), "Haruki Murakami now available in 50 languages" Archived February 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, curtisbrown.co.uk, February 27, 2014: "Following a recent Malay deal Haruki Marukami's work is now available in 50 languages worldwide."
  3. ^ Maiko, Hisada (November 1995). "Murakami Haruki". Kyoto Sangyo University. Archived from the original on May 23, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2008.
  4. ^ McCurry, Justin, "Secrets and advice: Haruki Murakami posts first responses in agony uncle role" Archived October 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, January 16, 2015.
  5. ^ "Japan's Murakami wins Kafka prize". CBC. October 30, 2006. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  6. ^ Kelleher, Olivia (September 25, 2006). "Frank O'Connor short story award goes to Japanese author". Irish Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  7. ^ Flood, Alison (February 16, 2009). "Murakami defies protests to accept Jerusalem prize". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 24, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  8. ^ Ciaran, Giles (May 24, 2023). "Bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami wins Spanish Asturias prize for literature". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  9. ^ a b "Author". Haruki Murakami. Archived from the original on July 2, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  10. ^ "The best Japanese work of fiction published in Japanese during Japan's Heisei era was 'IQ84' by Haruki Murakami". Red Circle Authors. January 11, 2021. Archived from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  11. ^ Oates, Joyce Carol (May 2, 2019). "Science Fiction Doesn't Have to Be Dystopian". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  12. ^ Jamshidian, Sahar; Pirnajmuddin, Hossein (January 1, 2014). "Dancing with shadows: Haruki Murakami's dance dance dance". Kemanusiaan. 21 (1): 41–51.
  13. ^ "Haruki Murakami: 'I'm an outcast of the Japanese literary world'". the Guardian. September 13, 2014. Archived from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  14. ^ Mayer, Petra (April 6, 2021). "Haruki Murakami: 'I've Had All Sorts Of Strange Experiences In My Life'". NPR. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  15. ^ Mambrol, Nasrullah (April 8, 2019). "Analysis of Haruki Murakami's Novels". Literary Theory and Criticism. Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  16. ^ Poole, Steven (September 13, 2014). "Haruki Murakami: 'I'm an outcast of the Japanese literary world'". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016. Murakami doesn't read many of his Japanese contemporaries. Does he feel detached from his home scene? "It's a touchy topic", he says, chuckling. "I'm a kind of outcast of the Japanese literary world. I have my own readers ... But critics, writers, many of them don't like me." Why is that? "I have no idea! I have been writing for 35 years and from the beginning up to now the situation's almost the same. I'm kind of an ugly duckling. Always the duckling, never the swan."
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference kelts was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ "Haruki Murakami: 'You have to go through the darkness before you get to the light'". the Guardian. October 10, 2018. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  19. ^ Poole, Steven (May 27, 2000). "Tunnel vision". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  20. ^ "Author's Desktop: Haruki Murakami". www.randomhouse.com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2021.