羊男のクリスマス

by Haruki Murakami

聖羊祭日にドーナツを食べた呪いの為クリスマスソングが作曲できない羊男は、穴のあいてないねじりドーナツを手に秘密の穴の底におりていきました。暗い穴を抜けるとそこには――。なつかしい羊博士や双子の女の子、ねじけやなんでもなしも登場して、あなたを素敵なクリスマスパーティにご招待します。

Genres: Japanese Literature, Short Stories, Fiction, Childrens, Magical Realism, Philosophy, Fantasy

68 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1985

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Quí Hiển · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truyện đọc trộm trên mạng. Đây là truyện thể hiện cực kì rõ nét các mối ám ảnh của ông Cây, về cái hố, cái lỗ, cái giếng, cừu và gái. Truyện này có thể xếp vào series Người cừu, thuộc phong cách thời kì tiền Rừng của ông Cây, mang nét giông giống truyện Thư viện, nhưng có nét khác các tiểu thuyết thuộc series Chuột.

[Sarva Heydari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hilarious!!
People say this is for children and you shouldn't expect too much. That's definitely true if you take the word choices and the illustrations into account, but the story was very clever written and I can't describe how enjoyable it was for me to read. Pointing out how foolish humans' beliefs and their blind, sheep-like imitations can be. This is a kind of good night story I'd read to my future children.

[mnemosineirknygos · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kad ir kas būtų tebūnie visuomet Žmonių Avių Pasaulyje taika ir laimė..."

Toks Murakamiškas kūrinys. Tikrai nepavadinčiau vaikiška knygele. Pilnas savos simboliškos, toks gilus. Nors ir trumpa istorija, bet spėjau pasinerti į žmogaus avies pasaulį.

🐑4.0🐑

[Yue Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didnt know a heartwarming whimsical creative fairytale is what I want to read at the moment. It’s only April and I already want to celebrate Christmas🎄

[Katinas Čiobrelis | knygos, kelionės ir kiti įdomūs dalykai · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Pradėjau skaityti namuose, baigiau traukinyje. Tai lyg savotiška Murakamio istorijų priešistorė, kadangi esu labai seniai skaitęs visas jo knygas tai kildavo klausimas kas tas žmogus avis, kas tos 208 ir 209 mergaitės. Esmė tokia, jei planuoajte skaityti kitas jo knygas tai šią perskaičius bus viskas aiškiau.

[Alexander Sverchkov · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute little children's book. Dont go expecting much of a deep story in this one, as it's targeted towards children and is mostly cluttered with illustrations (which look really good btw). The version I read was in Russian and it's a pretty solid edition with a nice hard back.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Characteristically weird. I bought this (Japanese version) as I thought it would be a cute Christmas story and I’m trying to get into Murakami. I found it pretty tedious, however the illustrations were cute and the language was simple.

[Ilona Savlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short. Phantasmagoric. Funny. I would recommend for teenagers.

[Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

つい最近読んだ「羊をめぐる冒険」とこの本が何か繋がりがあるのかなって期待してしまった。ストーリーは小中学生向けという感じ。🐏

[Julise · Rating 3 out of 5]

很好奇村上春树作品中多次出现的羊男代表了一种什么样的人群，为何用羊男这一个称呼？温顺，普通，善良？

[Birutė Jurkevičienė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taip šiltai ir jaukiai suskaičiau vieną šaltą rytą, belaukiant Kalėdų🎄

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something like a children’s story but if you read it closely, there’s something more about it. This book reminds me of our sheepish ideas and beliefs as a human being.

[Partof Shan · Rating 5 out of 5]

好一个会胡扯的村上村树呀！

[Joshua Moravec · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute little children's adventure/fantasy type book. It was a fun light read (and the Japanese is pretty easy to understand)

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a masterclass in seeing through sanitized establishment rhetoric, The Sheep Man's Christmas by Haruki Murakami is as real as it gets.

[Carola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a big Murakami fan and want to read as much of his as possible. Not everything (actually, most isn’t) is translated so during my trip I specifically looked for some of his untranslated fiction to read in Japanese. I stuck with illustrated works, because who can resist those really? One of them was ‘The Sheep Man’s Christmas’. Sheep Man is a character from a bunch of Murakami’s other works, A Wild Sheep Chase being the most famous. I found a translation of The Sheep Man’s Christmas here (sadly without Maki Sasaki’s lovely illustrations). I’m saving the book for Christmas day tomorrow!

[Aurimas Novikovas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fairy tale that is as good as Andersen's tales. The fairy tale that unites Murakami's incredible style with the harmony one seeks to find in the fairy tale. This is undoubtedly one of those texts I'm going to read for my kids (if any).

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collaboration of H. Muramaki and M. Sasaki was very cute and lovely.

[Tomáš · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murakami's twin of The Little Prince is funny and weird as you might expect. Quite a short story, but worthy to read. Especially if you wanna practice your Japanese.

[Meda · Rating 1 out of 5]

...

[Tsering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a nice ending to the story!

[Joseph L. Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute delight to read. Although a children's story, it still had Murakami's trademark "never know to expect-ness". Would recommend to anyone who can read Chinese (or Japanese for the original)!

[Hanaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved

[Taja Ofthemarigold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень понравилось описание жизни людей через призму жизни овцы. Наверное, мы все такие же глупенькие овцы