Haruki Murakami was born January 12, 1949, in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. He is a novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and translator.
His parents taught Japanese literature, and he grew up reading a diverse collection of works by European and American authors, including Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, and Richard Brautigan.
These literary influences distinguish his work from that of many contemporary Japanese authors.
Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo while working at a record store. Shortly before graduation, he opened Peter Cat, a coffee house and jazz bar in Kokubunji, Tokyo.
He met his future wife, Yoko Takahashi in Tokyo. They married soon after he completed his studies. She oversaw the daily operations of the jazz bar.
Murakami was twenty-nine when he started writing fiction. Before then, the author claims he was too busy with his jazz club to even consider doing anything else.
The idea for his first book came to him while he was watching a baseball game. Murakami completed his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, in ten months. He submitted the manuscript to a writing competition and won first place. It was published in 1979.
He completed his second novel, Pinball, 1973, a sequel to Hear the Wind Sing, in 1981.
In 1982, at 33 years old, Murakami started running for health reasons. He completed his first ultramarathon in 1996. He discusses running in his 2007 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
His first two novels weren’t widely available in English translation outside Japan until 2015. Murakami had been reluctant to have them translated because he was critical of his fledgling writing skills. He considers A Wild Sheep Chase the first book worthy of translation. According to Murakami,
“A Wild Sheep Chase was the first book where I could feel a kind of sensation, the joy of telling a story. When you read a good story, you just keep reading. When I write a good story, I just keep writing.”
He takes an active role in the English translations of his works preferring adaptations of his text over direct translations. This allows for the difference in British English and American English. Some of his works were originally translated into German from their English translations. These works were eventually retranslated from the original Japanese. Murakami has also translated many works of Raymond Carver, Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgearlad, John Irving, Paul Theroux, and others into Japanese.
Most of his works are written using first-person narrative in the tradition of the Japanese I-novel in recognition of the importance of family in Japanese literature. Independent characters value freedom and solitude over intimacy. Murakami infuses his stories with his unique humor believing his readers should be entertained even in the most serious circumstances. He wants his characters to experience what he experiences while he writes. He compares writing to being on a movie set, except the movie he’s making is just for him. He writes the script, directs the action, and gets to play all the parts.
He often describes writing fiction as putting the precise motion of water following its natural course into words. He also insists none of his characters are based on actual people. His unconscious mind mixes snippets of character traits from his observation of human behavior – a process he calls, “the automatic Dwarfs.” These characters ultimately break loose from his control and determine their own destiny.
His most notable works are Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994/95), Kafka on the Shore (2002). 1Q84 (2010), and Men Without Women (2014).
Other Selected Works:
Novels:
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Dance Dance Dance
South of the border, West of the Sun
Sputnik Sweetheart
After Dark
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Killing Commendatore
Th City and Its Uncertain Walls
Short Story Collections:
Let’s Meet in a Dream
The Elephant Vanishes
After the Quake
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
First Person Singular
Essays and Nonfiction:
Run, Don’t Walk
Rain, Burning Sun (Come Rain or Come Shine)
Portrait in Jazz
Underground
Portrait in Jazz 2
Absolutely on Music: Conversations
Haruki Murakami Goes to Meet Hayao Kawai
What is There to do In Laos?
Novelist as a Vocation
Other Books:
Birthday Stories (story anthology by various artists, selected and translated by Murakami)
The Strange Library (illustrated children’s novella)