Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer who writes novels, short stories and essays. His works have been translated into 50 languages and have sold millions of copies outside Japan. He was born on 12th January 1949 in Kyoto, Japan.
Haruki Murakami has become a world-famous author, so if you are not already acquainted with the author and his work, keep reading as we provide details about his life and his works.
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Haruki Murakami is a novelist of Magical Realist Fiction. Almost all of his works revolve around the journey of identifying the deepest core of human identity. He worked as the owner of a small Jazz club for seven years, after which he published his first novel “Hear the Wind Sing” in 1979. What differentiates him from other Japanese authors is that he grew up with a fascination with the West.
Some of his favourite authors are Franz Kafka, Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He also had a keen interest in Russian music and literature along with American and European culture.
Haruki Murakami did not have a writing career which began early in his life, rather he started writing at the age of 29. He worked on his first novel for 10 months and also received an award for it in a literary contest. This encouraged him to keep on writing, after which he published a sequel, a short story and other works of fiction, which made a trilogy of his work “Trilogy of the Rat”.
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A book by him, which was published in 1987, has gained much wider recognition in the 21st century, especially on all social media platforms. “Norwegian Woods”, which was Haruki Murakami’s breakthrough novel, sold a million copies among the young Japanese audience in 1987. This novel has, in recent times become even more popular since it was published. If any new reader comes across the author, this is mostly the first book that they pick up.
It is a story written in the voice of Toru Watanabe, who with a nostalgic emotion looks back at his life as a college student. The story is about loss and one’s growing sexuality.
“Norwegian Woods” became the most-read book once it gained recognition on social media.
Apart from magical realism, the author has explored several themes such as collective trauma, physical violence, war crimes and many other socially conscious themes.
Haruki Murakami is popularly quoted as saying that he moved from detachment to commitment when he lived in the United States. His early works came from his understanding of his individual inner darkness, whereas his later works reflect the darkness which is seen collectively in the society and in history.
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Another popular novel by the author is “Kafka on the Shore”, which was published in 2002 and its English translation came out in 2005. This novel won the “World Fantasy Award for Novels” in 2006. It discusses the gap between the conscious and the unconscious, where the protagonist embarks on a journey which will fill the gaps through his understanding.
Haruki Murakami is the recipient of many awards for his contribution to Literature. He also received an honorary doctorate of Letters from The University of Liege and also from Princeton University. In 2014 he was named under the category of “Times 100 Most Influential People”. His writing style is very similar to other works of Japanese Literature.
Mr. Murakami explained his writing process and said that his characters experience the same thing that he does. He claimed that he is the sort of author who cannot do anything else when he starts writing. He completely engrosses himself in his writing process. As many would believe that Haruki Murakami is a born writer, but he stated that he got the idea for his first book while he was watching a football match. He had a warm feeling in his heart, which has since, not left him.
Now the author’s books are sold all around the world and have even been adapted into movies and plays. One of Haruki Murakami’s phenomena which have become very popular in the present time is his writing schedule and habits.
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He gets up at 4 AM and writes for five to six hours without a break. He then spends the rest of the day swimming, reading, and listening to music and goes to bed at 9 PM. He aims to write at least 1000 words in that time period. This practice has become an inspiration for many new writers, who have been seen following the author’s routine on various social media platforms.
