Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author of fiction and nonfiction
works. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well
as internationally, with his novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His
Years of Pilgrimage topping the New York Times bestsellers list in
2014. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages.
Murakami is the recipient of numerous awards, including the World
Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award,
the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.
Philip Gabriel has published translations of four novels, one short
story collection, and two works of non-fiction by Haruki Murakami,
as well as short stories of Murakami's in The New Yorker, Harper's,
and elsewhere. His translation of Kuroi's novel Life in the
Cul-de-sac won the 2001 Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for
the translation of Japanese Literature, and in 2006 he was awarded
the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for his
translation of Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, a book which was
selected by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Books of
2005. He has recently completed translations of a second novel by
Yoshida Shuichi, Parade, and Murakami's latest novel, Colorless
Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Ray Porter is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and
fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has
appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Almost
Famous, ER, and Frasier.
Murakami's latest is a nonfiction work mostly concerned with his thoughts on the long-distance running he has engaged in for much of his adult life. Through a mix of adapted diary entries, old essays, reminiscences and life advice, Murakami crafts a charming little volume notable for its good-natured and intimate tone. While the subject matter is radically different from the fabulous and surreal fiction that Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) most often produces, longtime readers will recognize the source of the isolated, journeying protagonists of the author's novels in the formative running experiences recounted. Murakami's insistence on focusing almost exclusively on running can grow somewhat tedious over the course of the book, but discrete, absorbing episodes, such as a will-breaking 62-mile "ultramarathon" and a solo re-creation of the historic first marathon in Greece serve as dynamic and well-rendered highlights. Murakami offers precious little insight into much of his life as a writer, but what he does provide should be of value to those trying to understand the author's long and fruitful career. An early section recounting Murakami's transition from nightclub owner to novelist offers a particularly vivid picture of an artist soaring into flight for the first time. (Aug.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
If we all ran like brilliant Japanese novelist Murakami, would we write as well as he does? Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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