Book Club Author Suggestion : Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author born on January 12, 1949, in Kyoto, Japan. He is one of the most internationally renowned contemporary Japanese writers, known for his unique blend of magical realism, surrealism, and modern existential themes.

Murakami grew up in a family of teachers and was exposed to Western literature and music at an early age, which heavily influenced his work. He studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo and later opened a jazz bar, “Peter Cat,” with his wife, Yoko, which they ran for several years. His love for jazz and Western culture frequently appears in his novels.

Murakami began writing fiction in his late twenties, and his first novel, “Hear the Wind Sing,” was published in 1979. It won the Gunzo Award for new writers, marking the beginning of his literary career. He gained widespread recognition with the publication of “Norwegian Wood” in 1987, a nostalgic and melancholic love story that became a bestseller in Japan.

His most acclaimed works include “Kafka on the Shore,” “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” and “1Q84.” These novels often explore themes of loneliness, alienation, and the blurred lines between reality and the surreal. His writing style is characterized by its dreamlike atmosphere, intricate plots, and a deep sense of melancholy.

Despite his success, Murakami remains a reclusive figure, rarely making public appearances. He continues to write and publish, with his works being translated into multiple languages and attracting a global readership.

---

Available Works in the Colorado Book Club Resource

The Book Club Resource has 8+ copies of each title available for 8 weeks at a time to reading groups across the state. The descriptions below were taken from Amazon.com.

 Kafka on the Shore (2002) | Discussion Questions

Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father’s dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle. Murakami’s novel is at once a classic quest, but it is also a bold exploration of mythic and contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mother-love, of sister-love. Above all it is an entertainment of a very high order.

 The Elephant Vanishes (2005) | Discussion Questions

In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By turns haunting and hilarious, in The Elephant Vanishes Murakami crosses the border between separate realities—and comes back bearing remarkable treasures.

---

A Few Notable Facts:

• Murakami is one of the most internationally recognized Japanese authors, with his works translated into over 50 languages, making him a global literary figure.
• Before becoming a writer, Murakami owned a jazz bar called “Peter Cat” in Tokyo. His deep love for jazz music frequently influences his writing, and jazz references are often found in his novels.
• Murakami is an avid long-distance runner. He began running seriously in his 30s and has since participated in numerous marathons and even ultramarathons. He wrote a memoir titled “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” where he reflects on the parallels between running and writing.
• Murakami’s style is characterized by magical realism, surrealism, and themes of loneliness, alienation, and existentialism. His narratives often blur the lines between reality and the supernatural, creating a dreamlike quality in his stories.
• Murakami’s works are heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly American literature and music. He has translated works of American authors like Raymond Carver and F. Scott Fitzgerald into Japanese.
• Murakami has received numerous literary awards, including the World Fantasy Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize. He has also been considered a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• His novel “Norwegian Wood” (1987) catapulted him to fame in Japan. The book became a bestseller and is often credited with making him a household name in Japan.
• Many of Murakami’s works explore the concept of parallel worlds or alternate realities, as seen in novels like “1Q84” and “Kafka on the Shore.”
• Despite his international fame, Murakami is known for being a private and reclusive figure, rarely giving interviews or making public appearances.
• Animals, particularly cats, appear frequently in Murakami’s works, often as symbolic figures or as part of the surreal elements in his stories.
• Murakami decided to become a writer after having a sudden epiphany while watching a baseball game. He began writing his first novel, “Hear the Wind Sing,” that same night and completed it in his spare time.
• Murakami is often associated with magical realism, where fantastical elements are introduced into otherwise mundane or realistic settings. This genre-blending technique is a hallmark of his storytelling.
• September 2021, architect Kengo Kuma announced the opening of a library dedicated entirely to Murakami’s works at Waseda University, which would include more than 3,000 works by Murakami, including translations into more than 50 other languages. The library, officially known as the Waseda International House of Literature or the Haruki Murakami Library, opened on October 1, 2021. In addition to its vast collection of written material, the library also hosts a coffee shop run by Waseda University students—called Orange Cat, after Murakami’s Peter Cat jazz bar from his twenties—in addition to a listening lounge where visitors can listen to records collected by Murakami himself.

---

Selected Quotations:

• Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live. 
• Among the many values in life, I appreciate freedom most.
• Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away. If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.
• It’s true that at the time I was fond of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and it was from them that I learned about this kind of simple, swift-paced style, but the main reason for the style of my first novel is that I simply did not have the time to write sustained prose.
• I’m not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years.
• Every day I go to my study and sit at my desk and put the computer on. At that moment, I have to open the door. It’s a big, heavy door. You have to go into the Other Room. Metaphorically, of course. And you have to come back to this side of the room. And you have to shut the door.
• I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.
• I get up early in the morning, 4 o’clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that’s enough. In the afternoon, I run.
• As a novelist, you could say that I am dreaming while I am awake, and every day I can continue with yesterday’s dream. Because it is a dream, there are so many contradictions and I have to adjust them to make the story work. But, in principle, the original dream does not change.
• If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals.

---

Awards and Recognition

• 1979: Gunzo Award (best first novel) for Hear the Wind Sing
• 1982: Noma Literary Prize (best newcomer) for A Wild Sheep Chase
• 1985: Tanizaki Prize for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
• 1995: Yomiuri Prize (best novel) for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
• 1999: Kuwabara Takeo Prize for Underground
• 2006: Franz Kafka Prize
• 2006: World Fantasy Award (best novel) for Kafka on the Shore
• 2006: Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
• 2007: Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, but according to the prize’s official website, he “declined to accept the award for reasons of personal principle”.
• 2009: Jerusalem Prize, a biennial literary award given to writers whose work deals with themes of human freedom, society, politics, and government
• 2009: Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain
• 2014:  Welt-Literaturpreis  award
• 2015: named one of the Time 100 most influential people
• 2016: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award
• 2018: America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing
• 2018: nominated for the New Academy Prize in Literature. He requested that his nomination be withdrawn, saying he wanted to “concentrate on writing, away from media attention.”
• 2022: Prix mondial Cinco Del Duca for a lifetime of work constituting, in a literary form, a message of modern humanism
• 2023: Princess of Asturias Award for Literature

---

Additional Reading

• The Underground Worlds or Haruki Murakami – New Yorker Magazine
• Is Murakami’s Writing Sexist? – The Gazelle
• Murakami and His Male Gaze – The RCHK Truth
• Cancel Culture Grows Up – New York Magazine
• A Feminist Critique of Murakami Novels, with Murakami Himself – Lit Hub

---

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Haruki Murakami.com
• BrainyQuote.com

Book club sets are circulated to participating libraries via the CLiC courier. Read all about the program on the Book Club Resource landing page. If you are interested in receiving book club sets but are not already a member library, use the online form to get signed up.

Since the BCR has always relied on book donations, we are deeply grateful to all of the institutions and individuals that have donated sets and helped make the collection stronger. Please contact bookclub@coloradovirtuallibrary.org for questions or to discuss donations.