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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 · 4,201,895 ratings · 360,409 reviews · 603 distinct works • Similar authors

	Norwegian Wood 3.99 avg rating — 722,785 ratings — published 1987 — 364 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) 4.12 avg rating — 544,475 ratings — published 2002 — 300 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 — 338,485 ratings — published 2009 — 154 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 — 313,335 ratings — published 1994 — 5 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 — 201,952 ratings — published 2013 — 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
	What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 3.87 avg rating — 201,425 ratings — published 2007 — 199 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 — 187,613 ratings — published 2004 — 15 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 — 180,066 ratings — published 1999 — 196 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 — 151,765 ratings — published 1985 — 52 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 — 149,582 ratings — published 1992 — 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

More books by Haruki Murakami…

Series by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 (3 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

村上春樹

3.97 avg rating — 466,170 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 — 317,159 ratings

The Rat (4 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

3.86 avg rating — 330,663 ratings

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

Haruki Murakami

3.95 avg rating — 110,047 ratings

ねじまき鳥クロニクル (2 books)
by

Haruki Murakami,

هاروكي موراكامي,

محمد عبد العاطي عبد الخير (Translator)

3.97 avg rating — 2,624 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

February 2017 New School Classic Poll

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, 374, 1928

48 votes, 19.1%

Beloved by Toni Morrison, 324 pgs, 1987

46 votes, 18.3%

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

30 votes, 12.0%

I, Claudius by Robert Graves, 468 pgs, 1934

22 votes, 8.8%

The Cider House Rules by John Irving, 973 pgs, 1985

20 votes, 8.0%

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, 231 pgs, 1939

16 votes, 6.4%

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, 355 pgs, 1961

15 votes, 6.0%

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, 216 pgs, 1940

11 votes, 4.4%

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, 228 pgs, 1951

11 votes, 4.4%

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, 314 pgs, 1944

8 votes, 3.2%

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, 236 pgs, 1922

7 votes, 2.8%

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, 174 pgs, 1944

7 votes, 2.8%

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, 367 pgs, 1984

7 votes, 2.8%

Centennial by James A. Michener, 1056 pgs, 1974

3 votes, 1.2%

251 total votes

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