more photos (2)

Haruki Murakami’s Followers (136,248)

Add New
Videos

Why should you read “Kafka on the Shore”?

1 comment

Haruki Murakami

Born

in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan

January 12, 1949

Website

https://harukimurakami.com/

Genre

Fiction, Surrealism, Magical Realism

Influences

Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Salinger, Ra ...more

edit data

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.
...more

0 posts
Haruki Murakami's Blog

Haruki Murakami isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Haruki Murakami hasn't written any blog posts yet.

Combine Editions
Haruki Murakami’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 4,393,777 ratings · 384,074 reviews · 629 distinct works • Similar authors

	Norwegian Wood 3.98 avg rating — 762,286 ratings — published 1987 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator) 4.11 avg rating — 570,222 ratings — published 2002 — 82 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator), Philip Gabriel (Translator) 3.95 avg rating — 347,266 ratings — published 2009 — 155 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator) 4.14 avg rating — 323,275 ratings — published 1994 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 3.86 avg rating — 215,180 ratings — published 2007 — 200 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage 3.87 avg rating — 208,813 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After Dark 3.74 avg rating — 195,530 ratings — published 2004 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator) 3.82 avg rating — 187,269 ratings — published 1999 — 200 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum (Translator) 4.11 avg rating — 156,683 ratings — published 1985 — 218 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator) 3.85 avg rating — 156,785 ratings — published 1992 — 221 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Haruki Murakami…

Series by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 (3 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

村上春樹

3.97 avg rating — 479,626 ratings

ねじまき鳥クロニクル (3 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

هاروكي موراكامي,

محمد عبد العاطي عبد الخير (Translator)

4.14 avg rating — 327,275 ratings

The Rat (4 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

3.86 avg rating — 342,536 ratings

騎士団長殺し [Kishidancho Goroshi] (2 books)
by

Haruki Murakami

3.95 avg rating — 114,617 ratings

ねじまき鳥クロニクル (2 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

هاروكي موراكامي,

محمد عبد العاطي عبد الخير (Translator)

3.96 avg rating — 2,713 ratings

More series by Haruki Murakami…

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We’ve got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Polls

May 2015 New School Classics Poll

Which book would you choose for our May New School group read?

1957, The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 320 pages

8 votes, 21.1%

1934, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, 322 pages

5 votes, 13.2%

1928, Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

5 votes, 13.2%

1930, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, 267 pages

4 votes, 10.5%

1915, The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, 417 pages

4 votes, 10.5%

1994, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 607 pages

4 votes, 10.5%

1931, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, 418 pages

3 votes, 7.9%

1982, Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, 429 pages

3 votes, 7.9%

1945, The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, 401 pages

2 votes, 5.3%

38 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Challenge: Sarah's 2008 Book Challenge v2.0 - Fini!	5	1874	Dec 29, 2008 09:31AM
The Rory Gilmore ...: Favorite Reads of 2008	29	3230	Jan 08, 2009 05:23AM
The Next Best Boo...: Group Read Nominations for February IS CLOSED!	95	584	Jan 28, 2009 08:35PM
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL WINTER CHALLENGE - 2008/2009	2155	4192	Mar 04, 2009 07:03AM
The Next Best Boo...: HELLO!!! We have our winners for May!!!	283	962	Apr 30, 2009 05:02PM
Chicks On Lit: Author Talk	81	351	Jun 08, 2009 11:50AM
SciFi and Fantasy...: July Sci-Fi Book Please See Posts#1-#14-#26	73	654	Jun 14, 2009 03:22AM

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Haruki to Goodreads.

Haruki Murakami’s Followers (136,248)

Add NewVideos

Haruki Murakami

0 postsHaruki Murakami's Blog

Combine EditionsHaruki Murakami’s books

Series by Haruki Murakami

Related News

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

0 posts
Haruki Murakami's Blog

Combine Editions
Haruki Murakami’s books