Haruki Murakami - Biography

Japanese writer



He was born on January 12,1949 in Kyoto, Japan during the post- baby boom after the Second World War.

He is only child. Grandson of a Buddhist priest. His parents taught him Japanese literature. In his youth, he lived in Kobe.

Early, he received literary and musical influences of Western culture. He grew up reading authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac.

He studied literature and Greek theatre at Waseda University (Soudai), where he met Yoko, his wife. During this time he worked in a record store, and before finishing his studies he opened a Jazz club, thePeter Car, managed with his wife from 1974 to 1981 in Kokubunji, Tokio.

He decided to write his first novel while he was watching a baseball game; it happened in 1978, in the Japan Jingu Stadium, where Murakami was watching the match Yakult Swallows VS Hiroshima Carp. David Hilton went to bat, and at the moment that he hit the ball, he realized that maybe he could write a novel.

The writer declared that he likes to create stories that cause confusion among his readers in novels such as Tokyo Blues (Norwegian wood), his first international success, until then, he had not exceeded the 100.000 books, but with this one he reached the four million; others novels such as Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, a story of personal growth and reflection trough loneliness, which exceeded one million of copies sold, within two weeks of publication. After the success of his novel Norwegian Wood in 1986, he lived in Europe and United States, but he came back to Japan in 1995 after the Kobe´s earthquake, and the sarín gas attack by the sect Aum Shinrikyo perpetrated in the Tokyo subway. He wrote about this events in titles likeUnderground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. His others novels are: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Sputnik Sweetheart;South of the Border, West of the Sun and Kafka on the Shore. In 2005, the short stories collection Tokyo Kitanshu was published and later an anthology of stories called Stories Birthday.

He achieved millions of books sold, and a critical acclaim, although in his country, some people accused him of wanting to “destroy the Japanese tradition”. His work has been classified as pop literature and also as a surrealist literature where he treat with the alienation and the postmodern loneliness, where we can find the influence of authors he has translated as John Irving, Raymond Carver or even F. Scott Fitzgerald. Murakami often name his characters with Kanji (sonograms used for writing Japanese language). His works take as titles references to songs like Dance, Dance, Dance (The Dells), Norwegian Wood (Beatles) and South of the Border, West of the sun (Nat King Cole). His love for the music impregnates his literature.


He participate in marathons and triathlons, on June 23, 1996 he completed his first ultramarathon a race of 100 kilometres around Lake Saroma in Hokkaido, Japan. He also write about his sporting hobby in books like What I talk when I talk About Running (2007), that unlike others of his novels there are no characters with a existential problem, instead is a recopilation of memories and reflections, and where the chronic and the essay are mixed.

Enthusiastic of Gustav Mahler´s symphonies; also to some TV series like The Sopranos. He does not like dogs or celebrities; he is not easily photographed and rarely gives interviews.

He is recognized worldwide, he has been awarded with prizes like Noma, Tanizaki, Yomiuri, Franz Kafka o Jerusalem Prize. In Spain, he has received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Spanish Government and the Premi International Catalunya 2011


Bibliography

Novels

Kaze no uta o kike 1979 — Hear the Wind Sing 1987
1973-nen no pinboru 1980 — Pinball, 1973 1985
Hitsuji o meguru boken 1982 — A Wild Sheep Chase 1989
Sekai no owari to Hado-boirudo Wandarando 1985 — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 1991
Noruwei no mori 1987 — Norwegian Wood 2000
Dansu dansu dansu = Dance dance dance 1988 — Dance Dance Dance 1994
Kokkyo no minami, taiyo no nishi 1992 — South of the Border, West of the Sun 2000
Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru 1994–1995 — The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 1997
Suputoniku no koibito 1999 — Sputnik Sweetheart 2001
Umibe no Kafuka 2002 — Kafka on the Shore 2005
Afuta daku = After dark 2004 — After Dark 2007
Ichi-kyu-hachi-yon 2009–2010 — 1Q84 2011
Shikisai o motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, Kare no Junrei no Toshi 2013 — Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage 2014


*buscabiografias.com

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