Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami, considered one of the greatest contemporary Japanese authors, was born in Kyoto in 1949. He met his wife, Yoko, at university, and together they opened a jazz club in Tokyo named "Peter Cat." His first novel, "Hear the Wind Sing," was published in Japanese in 1979 and in English in 1987. This was followed by the novels "Pinball, 1973" (1983, English: 1985), "A Wild Sheep Chase" (1982, English: 1989), "Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of the World" (1985, English: 1991), and several short stories included in the collections "The Elephant Vanishes" (1985, English: 1991) and "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" (2005, English: 2006). Commercial success came with his next novel, "Norwegian Wood" (named after the Beatles song, 1987 in Japanese, 2000 in English), which made him famous in his country, sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and was adapted into a film. In 1987, he left Japan, returning in 1995. Success continued with his subsequent books: "Dance Dance Dance" (1988, English: 1994), "South of the Border, West of the Sun" (1992, English: 2000), "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" (1995, English: 1997), "Underground" (his first non-fiction work, 1998, English: 2000), "Sputnik Sweetheart" (1999, English: 2001), "After the Quake" (short stories, 2000, English: 2002), "Kafka on the Shore" (novel, 2002, English: 2005), "After Dark" (novel, 2004, English: 2007), "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" (essay, with an ironic nod to Raymond Carver, 2007, English: 2008), "1Q84" (a three-part epic novel, 2009-2010, English: 2011). His new novel is titled "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage," 2013 (in Japan), and is expected to be published in English in 2014. He has translated works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, John Irving, and Raymond Carver into Japanese. He has been honored with the Franz Kafka and Jerusalem prizes, as well as Japan's most prestigious literary award, the Yomiuri Prize. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages.