kafka on the shore

In 1978, HARUKI MURAKAMI was 29 and running a jazz bar ¡n downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel carne to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, that turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, have been translated into more than 50 languages, and he has received many honours, including the Franz Kafka Prize. His works include non-fiction, such as What ITalkAbout When ITalkAbout Running, short-story collections, like First Person Singular, and the masterful novéis The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Killing Commendatore. He is one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.