Murakami was
born in Kyoto in 1949 and
graduated from the Waseda
University, Tokyo, in 1975. He
and his wife lived in Europe and
the United States from 1986 to
1995 before returning to Tokyo.
He did not write his first
novel, Hear the Wind Sing
(1979, translated 1987) until he
was in his thirties. His major
breakthrough came in 1987 with
the publication of Norwegian
Wood - a coming of age story
named after the Beatles' song,
which is somewhat different to
his other books in that it is
written in a realistic style,
whereas his other books all have
strong fantasy elements.
In addition to writing his own
books in Japanese, Murakami is a
skillful translator of English
works into Japanese, including
books by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Raymond Carver, John Irving and
Paul Theroux.
Partial Bibliography
Novels
The Trilogy of the Rat:
Hear the Wind Sing (1979), Pinball, 1973 (1980), A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
The Hard-boiled
Wonderland and End of the
World, 1985
Norwegian Wood,
1987
Dance, Dance, Dance
(1993)
The Wind-up Bird
Chronicle (1994)
South of the Border,
West of the Sun (1999)
Sputnik Sweetheart
(1999)
Kafka on the Shore
(2002)
After Dark (2004
- English translation by Jay
Rubin 2006)
Non Fiction
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - memoir (2008)
Underground (2000)
Collections
The Elephant Vanishes
(1993)
After the Quake
(2002)
Vintage Murakami
(2004)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2006)
This biography was last updated on 01/20/2011.
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