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mae
02-05-2011, 10:30 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/31/haruki-murakami-1q84-english-october

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1Q84

Bev Vincent
02-05-2011, 11:21 AM
I was very pleased to hear about this a couple of weeks ago -- Murakami is one of my favorites.

mae
02-05-2011, 12:02 PM
By all accounts it sounds like an amazing read. Can't wait. It's up on Amazon already.

mae
02-05-2011, 12:06 PM
On a related note, they re-published Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, another epic of his, in hardcover in the UK recently: http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/book.htm?command=search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=1846553873 The original US hardcover is out of print and goes for tons of cash used.

Too bad that it's not a new translation, though, since some material was cut from the original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle#Missing_chapters

Bev Vincent
02-05-2011, 01:15 PM
That was the first of his books that I read -- and I was hooked.

Darkthoughts
02-05-2011, 01:39 PM
My first was Kafka On The Shore. He is a stunning author.

Erin
02-05-2011, 02:21 PM
I had never heard of Murakami until a few days ago when I read an article about him. Now all of a sudden, I'm seeing stuff about him pop up everywhere. What book of his should I start out with?

mae
02-05-2011, 02:21 PM
Apparently that Wind-Up Bird Chronicle edition is a limited edition of 2500 copies, according to http://www.camulodunumbooks.co.uk/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle-limited-centenary-edition-by-haruki-murakami.asp Just found a good deal on it though.

mae
02-05-2011, 02:26 PM
I had never heard of Murakami until a few days ago when I read an article about him. Now all of a sudden, I'm seeing stuff about him pop up everywhere. What book of his should I start out with?

For my part I'd say A Wild Sheep Chase. Or The Elephant Vanishes, the short story collection.

Darkthoughts
02-05-2011, 02:44 PM
Yes, Erin - A Wild Sheep Chase is awesome, you can then follow it with Dance Dance Dance.

Ben Staad
02-11-2011, 05:42 AM
The only book I have read from him is "The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World". Based on the posts above it looks like I should next read A Wild Sheep Chase or Dance Dance Dance? Has anyone else read The Hard Boiled .................and how does this compare with his other works.

Bev Vincent
02-11-2011, 08:32 AM
I haven't read that one. I think we'll all be prejudiced in favor of the work that got us hooked on him -- The Wind-up Bird Chronicles in my case, which I always recommend to people.

Ben Staad
02-11-2011, 03:37 PM
OK mixed reviews on what to read next. Thanks for all the suggestions and I think I will pick up whichever one the local library has in.

mae
06-02-2011, 08:04 AM
http://knopf.knopfdoubleday.com/2011/03/25/chip-kidd-discusses-the-book-jacket-for-haruki-murakamis-forthcoming-novel-1q84/

Ruthful
06-09-2011, 06:55 AM
I bought a copy of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle about a month or so ago. The first Murakami novel I read was Sputnik Sweetheart, which I love. I have read a few of his nonfiction works, which is fantastic as well. Right now I'm reading Underground, which is his series of interviews with survivors of the sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway system.

rosered
08-12-2011, 08:43 PM
I've already read the first two books of 1Q84, they're already published on spanish, but the third one will be published until october. It's freaking awesome.

My favorite it's The wind up bird chronicle. But I really enjoy this autor, I identifies so much with his stories and characters. Once he said "my characters want to tell a lot of things, but they don't know how, so they talk to themselves".

rosered
08-12-2011, 08:44 PM
I also started with Sputnik!. It's suck a perfect book to start to read Murakami, I think.

mae
08-29-2011, 06:03 AM
Murakami has a new short story in the 9/5 issue of The New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/09/05/110905fi_fiction_murakami?currentPage=all

Also, there is an audio interview with the translator of 1Q84:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2011/09/05/110905on_audio_murakami

Ben Staad
08-29-2011, 06:10 AM
Thanks Pablo! I started reading it but my mind's somewhere else right now...will revisit this later on today.

Bev Vincent
08-29-2011, 06:15 AM
Excellent -- thanks. Will transfer to my iPad to read later.

mae
08-29-2011, 09:06 AM
My bad, the story is actually an excerpt from "1Q84", the forthcoming novel:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/08/this-week-in-fiction-haruki-murakami-1.html
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2011/08/haruki-murakami-and-individualism.html

Bev Vincent
08-29-2011, 09:46 AM
Even cooler.

mae
08-31-2011, 08:23 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/global/02iht-GA06-Murakami.html?scp=2&sq=&st=nyt&pagewanted=all

What were the events demarcating the spirit of the 21st century from that of the 20th? From a global perspective, they were, first of all, the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent rapid end of the Cold War order, and second, the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. The first act of destruction was one filled with bright hopes, while the one that followed it was an overwhelming tragedy. The widespread conviction in the first case that “the world will be better than ever” was totally shattered by the disaster of 9/11.

These two acts of destruction, which played out on either side of the millennial turning point with such vastly different momentum in each case, appear to have combined into a single pair that greatly transformed our mentality.

Over the past 30 years, I have written fiction in various forms ranging from short stories to full-length novels. The story has always been one of the most fundamental human concepts. While each story is unique, it functions for the most part as something that can be shared and exchanged with others. That is one of the things that gives a story its meaning. Stories change form freely as they inhale the air of each new age. In principle a medium of cultural transmission, stories are highly variable when it comes to the mode of presentation they employ. Like skilled fashion designers, we novelists clothe stories, as they change shape from day to day, in words suited to their figures.

Viewed from such a professional perspective, it would seem that the interface between us and the stories we encounter underwent a greater change than ever before at some point when the world crossed (or began to cross) the millennial threshold. Whether this was a change for the good or a less welcome change, I am in no position to judge. About all I can say is that we can probably never go back to where we started.

Speaking for myself, one of the reasons I feel this so strongly is the fact that the fiction I write is itself undergoing a perceptible transformation. The stories inside me are steadily changing form as they inhale the new atmosphere. I can clearly feel the movement happening inside my body. Also happening at the same time, I can see, is a substantial change in the way readers are receiving the fiction I write.

There has been an especially noteworthy change in the posture of European and American readers. Until now, my novels could be seen in 20th-century terms, that is, to be entering their minds through such doorways as “post-modernism” or “magic realism” or “Orientalism”; but from around the time that people welcomed the new century, they gradually began to remove the framework of such “isms” and accept the worlds of my stories more nearly as-is. I had a strong sense of this shift whenever I visited Europe and America. It seemed to me that people were accepting my stories in toto — stories that are chaotic in many cases, missing logicality at times, and in which the composition of reality has been rearranged. Rather than analyzing the chaos within my stories, they seem to have begun conceiving a new interest in the very task of how best to take them in.

By contrast, general readers in Asian countries never had any need for the doorway of literary theory when they read my fiction. Most Asian people who took it upon themselves to read my works apparently accepted the stories I wrote as relatively “natural” from the outset. First came the acceptance, and then (if necessary) came the analysis. In most cases in the West, however, with some variation, the logical parsing came before the acceptance. Such differences between East and West, however, appear to be fading with the passing years as each influences the other.

If I were to pin a label on the process through which the world has passed in recent years, it would be “realignment.” A major political and economic realignment started after the end of the Cold War. Little need be said about the realignment in the area of information technology, with its astounding, global-scale dismantling and establishment of systems. In the swirling midst of such processes, obviously, it would be impossible for literature alone to take a pass on such a realignment and avoid systemic change.

An acute difficulty brought about by such a comprehensive process of realignment is the loss — if only temporarily — of coordinate axes with which to form standards of evaluation. Such axes were there until now, functioning as reliable bases on which to measure the value of things. They sat at the head of the table as the paterfamilias of values, deciding what conformed and what did not. Now we wake up to find that not only the head of the household but the table itself has vanished. All around us, it appears, things have been — or are being — swallowed up by chaos.

When I hear the word “chaos,” I automatically picture the scenes of 9/11 — those shocking images that were shown a million times on television: The two jumbo jets plunging into the glass walls of the Twin Towers, the towers themselves crumbling without a trace, scenes that would continue to be unbelievable after a million and one viewings. The plot that succeeded with miraculous perfection — a perfection that reached a level of near surreality. If I may say so without fear of being misunderstood, the scenes even appeared to be something made with computer graphics for a Hollywood doomsday film.

We often wonder what it would have been like if 9/11had never happened — or at least if that plan had not succeeded so perfectly. Then the world would have been very different from what it is now. America might have had a different president (a major possibility), and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars might never have happened (an even greater possibility).

Let’s call the world we actually have now Reality A and the world that we might have had if 9/11 had never happened Reality B. Then we can’t help but notice that the world of Reality B appears to be realer and more rational than the world of Reality A. To put itin different terms, we are living a world that has an even lower level of reality than the unreal world. What can we possibly call this if not “chaos”?

What kind of meaning can fiction have in an age like this? What kind of purpose can it serve? In an age when reality is insufficiently real, how much reality can a fictional story possess?

Surely, this is the problem that we novelists now face, the question that we have been given. The moment our minds crossed the threshold of the new century, we also crossed the threshold of reality once and for all. We had no choice but to make the crossing, finally, and, as we do so, our stories are being forced to change their structures. The novels and stories we write will surely become increasingly different in character and feel from those that have come before, just as 20th-century fiction is sharply and clearly differentiated from 19th-century fiction.

The proper goal of a story is not to judge what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. More important is for us to determine whether, inside us, the variable elements and the traditional elements are moving forward in harmony with each other, to determine whether individual stories and the communal stories inside us are joined at the root.

In other words, the role of a story is to maintain the soundness of the spiritual bridge that has been constructed between the past and the future. New guidelines and morals emerge quite naturally from such an undertaking. For that to happen, we must first breathe deeply of the air of reality, the air of things-as-they-are, and we must stare unsparingly and without prejudice at the way stories are changing inside us. We must coin new words in tune with the breath of that change.

In that sense, at the same time that fiction (story) is presently undergoing a severe test, it possesses an unprecedented opportunity. Of course fiction has always been assigned responsibility and questions to deal with in every age, but surely the responsibility and questions are especially great now. Story has a function that it alone can perform, and that is to “turn everything into a story.” To transform the things and events around us into the metaphor of the story form and to suggest the true nature of the situation in the dynamism of that substitution: that is story’s most important function.

In my latest novel, 1Q84, I depict not George Orwell’s near future but the opposite— the near past — of 1984. What if there were a diffe- rent 1984, not the original 1984 we know, but another, transformed 1984? And what if we were suddenly thrown into such a world? There would be, of course, a groping toward a new reality.

In the gap between Reality A and Reality B, in the inversion of realities, how far could we preserve our given values, and, at the same time, to what kind of new morals could we go on to give birth? This is one of the themes of the work. I spent three years writing this story, during which time I passed its hypothetical world through myself as a simulation. The chaos is still there — in full measure.

But after a good deal of trial and error, I have a strong sense that I am finally getting it in story terms. Perhaps the solution begins from softly accepting chaos not as something that “should not be there,” to be rejected fundamentally in principle, but as something that “is there in actual fact.”

I may be too optimistic. But as a teller of stories, as a hopefully humble pilot of the mind and spirit, I cannot help but feel this way — that the world, too, after a good deal of trial and error, will surely grasp a new confidence that it is getting it, that the world will undoubtedly discover some clues that suggest a solution because, finally, both the world and story have already crossed the threshold of many centuries and passed many milestones to survive to the present day.

mae
10-20-2011, 02:50 PM
Great review of the book: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/michael-dirda-reviews-1q84-by-haruki-murakami/2011/10/14/gIQAyyzwyL_story.html

Bev Vincent
10-20-2011, 03:12 PM
100 pages to go -- fascinating novel.

Bev Vincent
10-21-2011, 07:05 AM
The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/the-fierce-imagination-of-haruki-murakami.html?adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1319209498-47MwcZJzcuk+cOsvIdNL2w)

mae
10-21-2011, 07:20 AM
Great long article, thanks. Murakami is definitely a modern classic genius. So bummed he didn't get the Nobel this year. Cannot wait for the new book to arrive.

mae
10-21-2011, 08:09 AM
100 pages to go -- fascinating novel.

Bev, could you elaborate just a bit? It looks like it is indeed the magnum opus it's being described as, and I'm really anxious to finally get my hands on it, but still would love to hear your mini-review of it, if you would.

Bev Vincent
10-21-2011, 08:34 AM
I think people are calling it his magnum opus simply because of its length. I don't think I'd consider it his greatest work ever -- but it certainly an ambitious, fascinating, perplexing, puzzling book. It deals with the nature of reality and what "self" really means. And, unlike other really long novels, it has a very small cast of characters. It deals with a parallel reality that is very similar to the "real" world and a fantasy world in a story that might be real, too. It also has a religious cult with mysterious intentions and most of the religious underpinnings are Christian rather than Buddhist, which is a bit of a surprise. And at the core it is about two characters who met only once when they were very young but whose fates seem inextricably intertwined, especially in the world of 1Q84.

mae
10-27-2011, 02:06 PM
Got the book today. Love the design but the dust jacket is vey loose and too big for the book. Maybe it was just damaged in transit from Amazon, but it's pretty.

Bev Vincent
11-06-2011, 10:15 AM
A quote that might pique your interest: "It's like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stays fastened to the axle and doesn't move."

sai delgado
11-11-2011, 03:04 PM
A lot of people here said they really enjoyed The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I was wondering if you could elaborate for me, tell me what it is you liked, because I've really struggled with it and I'm a fan of Murakami. I particularly liked his short story collection called After The Quake. I thought the beginning of Wind Up Bird was fantastic, it gets you hooked and then about half way through I just felt like the story was dragging on for too long.
I think I will go for Norwegian Wood next, because I want to watch the film.

mae
07-10-2012, 08:22 PM
Just picked up a nice first edition of Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun - been looking for an affordable copy for a while. Now my Murakami hardcover collection is nearly complete.

Have the first US hardcover editions of: 1Q84, After Dark, Kafka on the Shore, Sputnik Sweetheart, Dance Dance Dance, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, A Wild Sheep Chase, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, After the Quake, The Elephant Vanishes, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Have the first UK hardcover edition of Underground and the limited anniversary UK hardcover edition of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Plus the small Japanese English paperbacks of Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 - the only editions of them.

The only book missing is Norwegian Wood, which I though was never published in English in hardcover, but just now I happened to find this: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/haruki+murakami/norwegian+wood+-+waterstone27s+exclusive/8039706/ And, just my luck, it's out of print... :cry:

mae
07-13-2012, 05:26 PM
Sweet! Just picked up a copy of the Waterstones exclusive hardcover of Norwegian Wood (and not much more than the cover price! - whereas secondary market prices seem to be around $100) and thus completing my Murakami collection, now all in hardcover :panic: :excited: :nana:

http://pictures.abebooks.com/NICKB/8044915966.jpg

Ben Staad
07-13-2012, 05:33 PM
Congrats, Pablo! I've only read one book from him but it was very good.

mae
07-13-2012, 05:36 PM
Congrats, Pablo! I've only read one book from him but it was very good.

Thanks! He's a great writer, you should read more of his stuff. I suppose this should've gone to a general Murakami thread or the Pride & Joy (but I don't have the books on hand yet).

mae
07-29-2012, 06:32 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI6LyqO9i8Y&feature=player_embedded

mae
02-18-2013, 06:36 AM
Since this sort of became the Haruki Murakami thread: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/18/haruki-murakami-new-book-about



Much excitement for Haruki Murakami fans today after his Japanese publisher announced that he'd be publishing a new novel this April. It's been three years since the original edition of the last volume of Murakami's 1Q84 was published in Japanese – a little over a year since it was published in English translation - so readers are understandably hungry for more, but no details other than the publication date, not even the title, were given away by Bungeishunju.

It's "the worst form of teasing possible", concludes the Japan Daily Press, mournfully. Fans are in a frenzy of excitement , and in the absence of any more information, are speculating about what the book will cover.

"I bet it will contain ear porn, a lonely man, a teenage/under-age girl, the war in Manchuria [and] some cooking," opines one reader, probably fairly accurately. The NY Daily News, meanwhile, predicts that it's "safe to bet that there will be cats (that may or may not talk) and probably some awkward sex, too", while there's also talk that it could be a fourth part to 1Q84.

What we need, I feel, is a Haruki Murakami plot generator to keep us going until the mystery book is translated into English. It's that, or learn Japanese. Can anybody help out? It must start with a disappearing cat, surely...

mae
10-26-2013, 08:23 AM
New short story: http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2013/10/28/131028fi_fiction_murakami?currentPage=all

mae
02-25-2014, 08:00 AM
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2B9hP6H8EL.jpg

Out August 12: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385352107/

By the way, since this turned into a general Murakami thread, could we get a thread title change, please?

mae
06-14-2014, 05:29 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvhithmKWV4

Bev Vincent
06-15-2014, 03:49 AM
I have an eGalley of his network e. Can't wait to read it.

mae
06-15-2014, 05:04 AM
And a new short story in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2014/06/09/140609fi_fiction_murakami?currentPage=all

mae
09-02-2014, 06:10 AM
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/02/haruki-murakami-new-book-in-english-in-december-the-strange-library

Soon after he drew crowds, some of whom had queued for 18 hours, to a London book signing for his latest novel, Haruki Murakami’s publisher has announced a new short book in English that will be out in time for Christmas.

The Strange Library, which was published in Japanese in 2008, will feature specially designed text and illustrations when it is released in English for the first time on 2 December 2014, translated from the Japanese by Ted Goossen.

The tale recounts a schoolboy’s visit to the library which takes a number of very unexpected turns. On his way home from school, the young narrator finds himself wondering how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire. He pops into the local library to see if it has a book on the subject.

He is then led by an old man to a special “reading room” in a maze under the library, where he finds himself imprisoned with only a “sheep man”, who makes excellent doughnuts, and a girl who can talk with her hands. His mother will be worrying why he hasn’t returned in time for dinner and the old man seems to have an appetite for eating small boys’ brains.

Liz Foley, publishing director at Harvill Secker, said: “We are very excited to be publishing a special illustrated edition of The Strange Library as an unusual gift book for Christmas. Murakami’s imagination is unique and this is a wonderfully creepy tale that is sure to delight his fans”.

The publication of The Strange Library follows Murakami’s first visit to the UK in 10 years for the launch of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage in August. Bookshops across the country held midnight openings and special events to mark the occasion and the book’s front cover was projected on London landmarks including the Tate Modern in a countdown to publication day.

Murakami appeared at two sell-out events at the Edinburgh international book festival, and in London on Saturday hundreds queued overnight to attend a public signing at Waterstones Piccadilly.

The announcement resolves a small mystery for readers who attended the London event. At the signing, pastiche library cards were distributed featuring the words #strangelibrary, and what now transpires as the book’s publication date. That solved, they can now begin to interpret the doughnut and sheep symbolism.

mae
02-17-2015, 06:09 AM
New short story: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/kino?currentPage=all

Bev Vincent
06-12-2015, 08:26 AM
I just downloaded an eGalley of Wind/Pinball, which combines two early novellas by Haruki Murakami

mae
06-12-2015, 08:40 AM
Are they being finally officially released in English?

Checking Amazon: by gosh yes! August 4th.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ROXyLUIkL.jpg


In the spring of 1978, a young Haruki Murakami sat down at his kitchen table and began to write. The result: two remarkable short novels—Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973—that launched the career of one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.

These powerful, at times surreal, works about two young men coming of age—the unnamed narrator and his friend the Rat—are stories of loneliness, obsession, and eroticism. They bear all the hallmarks of Murakami’s later books, and form the first two-thirds, with A Wild Sheep Chase, of the trilogy of the Rat.

Widely available in English for the first time ever, newly translated, and featuring a new introduction by Murakami himself, Wind/Pinball gives us a fascinating insight into a great writer’s beginnings.

Bev Vincent
06-12-2015, 08:47 AM
Yep -- they're quite short. Together, about 150 pages.

mae
06-12-2015, 08:48 AM
Yep -- they're quite short. Together, about 150 pages.

Yeah I have the old tiny Japanese paperbacks made for Japanese people learning English. This is a new translation and a hardcover.

Bev Vincent
06-12-2015, 09:06 AM
Interestingly, he started writing Wind in English, which helped him find his style via his limited English vocabulary and straightforward sentence structure. He then transformed the English sections into Japanese.

Lookwhoitis
08-10-2015, 06:04 AM
been on a Murakami kick after discovering this thread some months ago. My first time reading him. At the moment I am working my way through all the short story collections.

mae
08-10-2015, 06:18 AM
The short stories, I think, are the best. My favorite is probably Sleep, a novella.

mae
07-09-2016, 11:47 AM
New book alert!

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/242969/absolutely-on-music-by-haruki-murakami-with-seiji-ozawa/9780385354349/

A deeply personal, intimate conversation about music and writing between the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author and his close friend, the former conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Haruki Murakami’s passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and from The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” to Franz Liszt’s “Years of Pilgrimage,” the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk, over a period of two years, about their shared interest. Transcribed from lengthy conversations about the nature of music and writing, here they discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more. Ultimately this book gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of the two maestros.

It is essential reading for book and music lovers everywhere.

http://images.randomhouse.com/cover/9780385354349

dungdn93
07-14-2016, 10:58 PM
My first was Kafka On The Shore. He is a stunning author.

mae
11-20-2016, 06:21 PM
And more new fiction coming next year:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451494628/

A dazzling new collection of short stories--the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41CZGJ-FDPL.jpg

RichardX
11-22-2016, 05:59 PM
Murakami is probably the greatest living fiction author but some of his stuff is hit and miss. Particulary the short stories. The line between genius and stupidity is a narrow one and he is sometimes on both sides of it. I'll read anything he writes though.

mae
01-14-2017, 12:09 PM
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/murakamis-new-book-murder-of-the-knight-commander-will-hit-the-japanese-bookstores-this-feb/articleshow/56440856.cms

Haruki Murakami's new book has a title, though its content remains a mystery.

"Kishidancho Goroshi," or "Murder of the Knight Commander," will hit Japanese bookstores on Feb. 24. Overseas availability isn't yet known.

Shinchosha Publishing Co. said Tuesday the book will have two parts, subtitled "Emerging Ideas" and "Moving Metaphor."

The titles suggest a contrast from the past works by the acclaimed best-selling writer. The publisher would only say more hints would come later.

His most recent novel "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" was released in Japan in 2013.

mae
04-14-2018, 02:24 PM
https://www.amazon.com/dp/052552004X/

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71evSrtrp8L.jpg

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170401/p2a/00m/0na/022000c

World-renowned writer Haruki Murakami, whose newest novel, "Kishidancho goroshi" ("Killing Commendatore"), was released in February, spoke recently with the Mainichi Shimbun and other media outlets about his latest work and the role of the novelist in the world today.

"Killing Commendatore" is Murakami's first multivolume work since "1Q84," which came out 2009-2010 in Japan. The first volume is titled "Arawaru Idea" (Emerging Idea) and the second volume, "Utsurou metaphor" (Moving metaphor).

The novel marks the first time in a while that Murakami has written in the first person. It is written in the voice of a 36-year-old painter whose wife left him abruptly.

"At first, I always wrote in the first person, and gradually shifted to the third person," Murakami said. "Having achieved a novel totally in the third-person with '1Q84,' I felt the urge to return to the first person. There was a strong sense that I was returning to my roots, but I think there was a certain maturing of the protagonist as well."

The "commendatore" originates with the Commendatore from Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni," who is killed at the outset of the drama. Murakami said that the title, "Killing Commendatore," came to him before he even began writing the novel.

"I was drawn to the peculiarity of the words," he said. "What I had first was the title, and the place where the story takes place, which is atop a hill in (the Kanagawa Prefecture city of) Odawara. The protagonist became a painter as I was writing."

The painter -- separated from his wife and searching for something to paint amid his feelings of loss -- finds himself living in a house which belongs to the father of a friend. The father, aged 92, is a renowned Japanese-style painter who now lives in a seniors' home, thus leaving his house empty and available for the protagonist. It is after the protagonist discovers a painting titled "Killing Commendatore" in the attic that he becomes entangled in a cryptic series of events.

The protagonist is commissioned to paint a portrait by a man with the unusual surname Menshiki. Aged 54, the mysterious Menshiki is a successful businessman living alone in a huge mansion on a hilltop across the valley from the protagonist. According to Murakami, the character was "a type of homage" to the 1925 American classic "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which Murakami has translated into Japanese.

The protagonist hears a bell ringing in the middle of the night, and in his search for the source of the sound, he comes upon a well-like hole in the ground. With Menshiki's cooperation, the protagonist unseals the hole, in which he finds an old bell, the likes of which would be found in a Buddhist altar. As is addressed in the novel itself, the story surrounding the bell is a motif taken from Edo-period novelist Ueda Akinari's short story, "Nise no Enishi" ("A bond for two lifetimes"), which is included in Ueda's collection of short stories, "Harusame Monogatari" ("The tale of spring rain").

"The classics are valuable when they are cited or referenced," Murakami said. "I reference a lot of things, and that makes it fun. Remarkable tales have power as repositories, and are effective when referenced."

Once the hole is unsealed, an enigmatic figure called "Idea," who looks exactly like Commendatore in the painting, appears. What unfolds afterward is a world in which good and evil are enmeshed, and bloodshed ensues. The protagonist is led into an underground darkness by figures in the painting, at which point Murakami fans will recognize and savor the signature maze-like elements of the novelist's tales.

After the protagonist undergoes a gamut of trials and tribulations, he resumes life with his wife, and raises the child his wife became pregnant with while the two were apart. At the end of the book, the story jumps a few years to the period immediately after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and ends with the protagonist discussing his beliefs as to how he will live his life. The ending marks a shift from loss to renewal.

"My novels are open-ended, or have mostly ended with the stories still wide open," Murakami explained. "This time, I realized that I'd begun to need a 'sense of closure.' For me, the fact that the protagonist decides at the end to live with the child is to suggest a new kind of conclusion."

The backdrop against which this shift occurred was a trip that Murakami took in the fall of 2015, in which he drove along the coast from Fukushima to Miyagi prefectures, the area hit hardest by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

"That was a significant experience. It's linked to the sense of renewal, to the feeling that I must create new things. It may also have to do with the responsibility I feel because of my age," the 68-year-old Murakami stated.

"I believe the disaster in the Tohoku region left a huge scar on the Japanese people's psyche. To portray the psyche of the people who lived through this particular time without parts that overlap (with the disaster) is unrealistic."

At the same time, however, the historical scars left by massacres such as the Holocaust and the Nanjing Massacre cast a shadow on the painting, "Killing Commendatore." What was Murakami's intent in inserting references to such historical events?

"Because history is the collective memory of a nation, I think it is a grave mistake to forget about the past or to replace memory with something else. We must fight against (historical revisionism). Novelists are limited in what we can do, but it is possible for us to fight such forces in the form of storytelling," he said.

RichardX
04-18-2018, 09:58 AM
Looking forward to the new book. The one review that I found was somewhat mixed, but even an average Murakami book is better than most anything else. I wonder if he will do any type of book tour or someone will produce a s/l edition?

mae
06-04-2018, 04:16 PM
Amazon has the final cover (I actually liked the simple placeholder, I thought that would be it):

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MilQVci9L.jpg

craigobau
07-06-2020, 12:54 PM
Just started reading my first Murakami novel today, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Really enjoying it so far and finding it hard to put down as I want to find out what’s going to happen next!

Bev Vincent
07-06-2020, 05:03 PM
That was my first with him. A great introduction to his work.

craigobau
07-08-2020, 12:58 AM
Has anyone read the trilogy of books of 1Q84 and would recommend it?

Reviews seem to be split between fan-boy raves others complaining about too much repetition throughout the 1200+ pages.

Bev Vincent
07-08-2020, 02:43 AM
Has anyone read the trilogy of books of 1Q84 and would recommend it?

Reviews seem to be split between fan-boy raves others complaining about too much repetition throughout the 1200+ pages.

I read it as a single book -- I enjoyed it. Here's my review from back in the day (http://www.bevvincent.com/onyx/murakami-1q84.html).

RichardX
01-04-2021, 10:44 AM
B&N has the upcoming Murakami book of short stories listed including a signed edition. Unfortunately, the signed edition appears to be currently "out of stock." Not sure what that means - sold out or more might become available - but a great deal at $28.

cit74
01-04-2021, 05:39 PM
B&N has the upcoming Murakami book of short stories listed including a signed edition. Unfortunately, the signed edition appears to be currently "out of stock." Not sure what that means - sold out or more might become available - but a great deal at $28.

So I couldn't find any other place selling signed copies of first person singular....but Ishiguro has a new book coming out - and there are signed copies at waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/klara-and-the-sun/kazuo-ishiguro/2928377047306

waterstones didn't have signed copies of the Murakami book either

Joe315
01-05-2021, 09:57 AM
B&N has the upcoming Murakami book of short stories listed including a signed edition. Unfortunately, the signed edition appears to be currently "out of stock." Not sure what that means - sold out or more might become available - but a great deal at $28.

So I couldn't find any other place selling signed copies of first person singular....but Ishiguro has a new book coming out - and there are signed copies at waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/klara-and-the-sun/kazuo-ishiguro/2928377047306

waterstones didn't have signed copies of the Murakami book either

Ishiguro at Goldsboro too. https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/klara-and-the-sun-indies-edition

becca69
01-05-2021, 02:43 PM
B&N has the upcoming Murakami book of short stories listed including a signed edition. Unfortunately, the signed edition appears to be currently "out of stock." Not sure what that means - sold out or more might become available - but a great deal at $28.

So I couldn't find any other place selling signed copies of first person singular....but Ishiguro has a new book coming out - and there are signed copies at waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/klara-and-the-sun/kazuo-ishiguro/2928377047306

waterstones didn't have signed copies of the Murakami book either

Ishiguro at Goldsboro too. https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/klara-and-the-sun-indies-edition

The Waterstones edition has special endpapers and sprayed edges. I'm a sucker for that!

Aremag
01-05-2021, 02:46 PM
B&N has the upcoming Murakami book of short stories listed including a signed edition. Unfortunately, the signed edition appears to be currently "out of stock." Not sure what that means - sold out or more might become available - but a great deal at $28.

So I couldn't find any other place selling signed copies of first person singular....but Ishiguro has a new book coming out - and there are signed copies at waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/klara-and-the-sun/kazuo-ishiguro/2928377047306

waterstones didn't have signed copies of the Murakami book either

Ishiguro at Goldsboro too. https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/klara-and-the-sun-indies-edition

The Waterstones edition has special endpapers and sprayed edges. I'm a sucker for that!

I picked up the Waterstones edition as that Ishiguro edition looked pretty sharp and put the Murakami book on my wishlist so hopefully I get notified if some more signed copies pop up.

mae
03-15-2023, 07:06 PM
https://apnews.com/article/japan-haruki-murakami-new-novel-title-f1e9dcdc806827b83d6b7df5f3f1945c

A new Haruki Murakami novel will be published in April and the publisher is saying little about it except that the Japanese manuscript is around 1,200 pages and the plot involves “a story that had long been sealed.”

“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” will be released on April 13 in both print and digital formats, Shinchosha Publishing Co. said in a statement on Wednesday. The availability of an English translation is not yet known.

In a brief promotional and cryptic teaser, the publisher said: “Must go to the city. No matter what happens. A locked up ‘story’ starts to move quietly as if ‘old dreams’ are woken up and unraveled in a secluded archive.”

It added that the book is a “soul-stirring, 100% pure Murakami world.”

Staff at the publisher said details about the plot are being withheld because many Murakami fans say they prefer to start reading his books without knowing what they are about.

It is unknown if the new novel is related to Murakami’s 1980 story with the same title that was published in a literary magazine but never released as a book.

The novel is Murakami’s first since “Kishidancho Goroshi,” or “Killing Commendatore,” was released in February 2017.

A perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Murakami, 74, published his debut book, “Hear the Wind Sing,” in 1979 while running a jazz bar in Tokyo. His 1987 romance “Norwegian Wood” became his first bestseller, establishing him as a young literary star. Known for his magical realism, Murakami has also penned bestsellers such as “A Wild Sheep Chase,” “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” and “1Q84.” His latest, “Killing Commendatore,” sold more than a million copies.

A library devoted to Murakami’s writings, scrapbooks and record collection opened in 2021 at his alma mater, Waseda University, in Tokyo as a venue for literary research and cultural exchange and a gathering spot for his fans.

Murakami is an avid music collector who appreciates genres ranging from classical to jazz and rock, and music serves as an important motif in many of his stories. Since 2018, Murakami has hosted a “Murakami Radio” show on Tokyo FM in which he plays some of his favorite music and provides occasionally humorous commentary and music trivia. He has also sometimes spoken out against political leaders.

Bev Vincent
03-16-2023, 03:23 AM
That's welcome news!

RichardX
03-16-2023, 04:41 AM
Great news! I'll read anything by Murakami. Even if it is sometimes repetitive (guys standing in holes, cats, divorced man, teen girl, jazz).

mae
03-16-2023, 05:12 AM
This is still just the original Japanese publication, no word on when we can expect the translation.

mae
09-07-2023, 12:37 PM
New short story: https://www.newyorker.com/books/flash-fiction/my-cheesecake-shaped-poverty-haruki-murakami