Introduction
Issue 6: What you Don’t Know About Haruki Murakami
Forty Years of Murakami—Anniversary Issue! Haruki Murakami is Japan’s best-known contemporary Japanese author. Born in Kyoto in 1949, he grew up in Ashiya, Kobe and went on to attend Waseda University in Tokyo. His books have been translated into more than fifty languages. In addition to novels in the genre of magical realism, Murakami also More…
Podcast
BOA Podcast 6: Lena Baibikov, translator of Haruki Murakami non-fiction
In this episode of the Hon podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Lena Baibikov who has translated Haruki Murakami’s non-fiction works from Japanese into Russian. Lena has translated What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Radio Murakami and a book of Murakami’s short stories as well as works by Banana Yoshimoto, Ryu Murakami, and Yukio Mishima and several children’s book authors. This podcast recording takes place in Lena’s kitchen in Ashiya, just 100 meters from where Murakami’s parents lived until the Kobe Earthquake of 1995. Lena also took Amy on a tour of the neighborhood Murakami grew up in. She tells us how she got started translating and what it is that intrigues her about Murakami’s works. (Click “more” below to see the Show Notes).
Pinball 1973/Hear the Wind Sing
Part of The Trilogy of the Rat, Murakami’s first two short novels.
A Wild Sheep Chase
This is the last of the Trilogy of the Rat and the novel won the Noma Literary Award for new writers.
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Winner of the prestigious Tanizaki Prize.
Norwegian Wood
The novel that catapulted Murakami to superstardom in 1987.
Dance, Dance, Dance
A sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase and Murakami’s attack on late-model capitalism.
The Elephant Vanishes
A collection of 17 short stories written from 1980 to 1991.
South of the Border, West of the Sun
“That cycle continues, year after year, and then one day, something inside you dies.”
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Murakami traveled to Manchuria and Mongolia to write this epic novel.
Underground
Haruki Murakami interviews victims of the Tokyo Gas Attack and reveals how the terrorist attack affected the psyche of the Japanese people.
Sputnik Sweetheart
Part romance, part detective story, a tangled triangle of uniquely unrequited love.
after the quake
A collection of six short stories written between 1999 and 2000.
Kafka on The Shore
In this story told by a 15-year-old narrator, cats converse with people and fish tumble from the sky.
After Dark
A short, sleek novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
A collection of 24 short stories written between 1980 and 2005
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Non-fiction about Murakami’s love for running. A bit of a memoir.
1Q84
Pronounced “one-Q-84,” this story takes place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984.
The Strange Library
A children’s story by Haruki Murakami. Get the kids hooked on Murakami while they’re young!
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
In Murakami’s 13th novel, the protagonist revisits his friends from high school in a quest to find out why he was shunned from this group of friends so long ago.
Killing Commendatore
A portrait painter who has recently split up with his wife moves to a house in Odawara.
Men Without Women
A collection of short stories about men who have lost women in their lives.
Absolutely On Music
Murakami’s passion for music leads him to interview Japan’s most famous conductor Seiji Ozawa.
Issue 6, New Writing
Stick Out Your Tongue in Secret, by Renae Lucas-Hall
A Murakami-esque short story It was the most traumatic night of my young life. A chilling experience for a thirteen-year-old girl. I’d always been a light sleeper but I knew it wasn’t the wind or an earthquake tremor that woke me in the wee hours of the morning. It must’ve been two or three o’clock. More…
Issue 6, Issues, New Writing
The Un-Well, by Richard Donovan
A story in the style of Murakami Haruki and his English translators One late-autumn Sunday morning when I set out into the back garden wielding the hedge trimmers, I found the well was gone. It wasn’t that I’d particularly liked the well when it had been there—it hadn’t provided us with delicious ice-cold water in More…