Ryū Murakami

Author profile

born

February 19, 1952 in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan

gender

male

genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Literature & Fiction, Horror

About this author

edit data

Ryū Murakami is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is not related to Haruki Murakami or Takashi Murakami.

Murakami's first work, the short novel Almost Transparent Blue, written while he was still a student, deals with promiscuity and drug use among disaffected Japanese youth. Critically acclaimed as a new style of literature, it won the newcomer's literature prize in 1976 despite some observers decrying it as decadent. Later the same year, Blue won the Akutagawa Prize, going on to become a best seller. In 1980, Murakami published the much longer novel Coin Locker Babies, again to critical acclaim.

Takashi Miike's feature film Audition (1999) was based on one of his novels. Murakami reportedly liked it so much he gave Miike his blessing to...more

combine editions
Books by Ryū Murakami

Average rating: 3.54 · 8,395 ratings · 884 reviews · 24 distinct works

	In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami, Ryu Murakami, Ralph McCarthy (Translation) 3.56 avg rating — 2,675 ratings — published 1997 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami, Stephen Snyder (Translator) 3.82 avg rating — 1,500 ratings — published 1980 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami, Nancy Andrew (Translator) 3.37 avg rating — 1,372 ratings — published 1976 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Piercing by Ryū Murakami, Ralph McCarthy (Translator), Ryu Murakami 3.49 avg rating — 870 ratings — published 2007 — 13 editions	My rating:
	69 3.59 avg rating — 795 ratings — published 1987 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Audition by Ryū Murakami, Ralph McCarthy (Translator) 3.39 avg rating — 700 ratings — published 2009 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Popular Hits of the Showa Era 3.30 avg rating — 180 ratings — published 1994 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Ecstasy 3.19 avg rating — 124 ratings — published 1993 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Kyoko: Roman 3.90 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 1995 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Lignes by Ryū Murakami, Sylvain Cardonnel / (Translator) 3.68 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 1998 — 4 editions	My rating:

More books by Ryū Murakami…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Ryū Murakami

“People who love horror films are people with boring lives... when a really scary movie is over, you're reassured to see that you're still alive and the world still exists as it did before. That's the real reason we have horror films - they act as shock absorbers - and if they disappeared altogether, I bet you'd see a big leap in the number of serial killers. After all, anyone stupid enough to get the idea of murdering people from a movie could get the same idea from watching the news.”
― Ryū Murakami, In the Miso Soup

40 people liked it

“Everybody wants to talk about themselves, and everybody wants to hear everybody else's story, so we take turns playing reporter and celebrity.”
― Ryū Murakami

tags: piercing

21 people liked it

“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.”
― Ryū Murakami, Coin Locker Babies

tags: travel

21 people liked it

See all Ryū Murakami's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Horror Aficionados : japanese horror films to book	11	66	Nov 04, 2009 10:14am
Horror Aficionados : interesting excerpt... what do you think?	10	32	Nov 08, 2009 10:13am
Challenge: 50 Books: Brian's Books for 2009	111	504	Dec 29, 2009 06:22pm
Challenge: 50 Books: Shibbie's 2010	37	134	Dec 12, 2010 08:39pm
Challenge: 50 Books: 50 Books Lounge Question #6	90	623	Dec 21, 2010 02:22pm
North Liberty Rea...: Jenni's 2010 Challenges and Read Books	135	30	Jan 02, 2011 03:20pm

More…

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