Additionally, celebrities such as Emma Watson and Harry Styles have expressed their love for Norwegian Wood, while Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985) appealed to Joe Jonas.Īlthough Murakami is not the first Japanese writer to have garnered global success - Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburō Ōe were both Nobel laureates - the acclaimed novelist has radically transformed the face of Japan’s literature for the world. Today, with his best-selling titles translated into around 50 languages, the Kyoto-born writer has millions of fans worldwide. Titled after the iconic Beatles song of the same name from the band’s 1965 album Rubber Soul, the book became a cult classic, selling more than four million copies in Japan alone. Murakami achieved global fame in 1987 with his fifth book, Norwegian Wood. Not to forget his occasional flirtation with magical realism and surrealism - be it the two moons appearing in 1Q84 or fish tumbling from the sky in Kafka on the Shore - readers are always left in awe by his enigmatic fictional worlds.

His works often portray details about the arid landscape of Tokyo‘s suburbs, the serenity of Japan’s snowy mountains, and the wild frenzy of its train stations.

With works that dislocate realities and uncover the extraordinary in the ordinary, Murakami is a writer of unparalleled magnitude. When Haruki Murakami first burst into the Japanese literary scene with one of his best books, the Gunzōprize-winning Kaze no uta o kike ( Hear the Wind Sing, 1979), few would have predicted that in less than two decades, he would establish himself as a major voice of the contemporary era.

Murakami books kafka on the shore