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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

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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.
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Haruki Murakami’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 4,391,140 ratings · 383,708 reviews · 629 distinct works • Similar authors

	Norwegian Wood 3.98 avg rating — 761,718 ratings — published 1987 — 365 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 — 569,862 ratings — published 2002 — 3 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 — 347,155 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 — 323,117 ratings — published 1994 — 2 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 — 215,028 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 — 208,725 ratings — published 2013 — 203 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 — 195,409 ratings — published 2004 — 207 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) 3.83 avg rating — 187,150 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 — 156,618 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 — 156,676 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 — 479,408 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 — 327,088 ratings

The Rat (4 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

3.86 avg rating — 342,348 ratings

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

Haruki Murakami

3.95 avg rating — 114,548 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 — 2,710 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

One of the challenges for January-March 2015 will be to read a book by the three authors that get the most votes in this poll. The list is drawn from discussions to date. Vote for your favourite by clicking on the photograph or add someone who is missing in the space at the end of the list.

Haruki Murakami

4 votes 20.0%

David Mitchell (write-in)

3 votes 15.0%

Helen Dunmore

2 votes 10.0%

Marilynne Robinson

2 votes 10.0%

Margaret Forster (write-in)

2 votes 10.0%

Patrick Gale (write-in)

2 votes 10.0%

Gillian Flynn

1 vote 5.0%

Khaled Hosseini

1 vote 5.0%

Jodi Picoult

1 vote 5.0%

Deborah Levy (write-in)

1 vote 5.0%

Ian McEwan

1 vote 5.0%

ian mcewan (write-in)

1 vote 5.0%

David Guterson

0 votes 0.0%

David Nicholls

0 votes 0.0%

Deborah Levy

0 votes 0.0%

Ian McEwan

-1 votes -5.0%

20 total votes

10 comments

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