Killing Commendatore

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 years old and ran a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, he suddenly felt the urge to write a novel while watching a baseball game. This first novel, "Hear the Wind Sing," won an award for emerging authors and was published the following year. More works followed, including "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," but it was "Norwegian Wood," published in 1987, that transformed Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, translated into many languages, including English, and the door to Murakami's unique and addictive fictional universe was thrown wide open.

Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages daily, after which he runs ten kilometers. He began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races. Additionally, he works on translations, reads, listens to records, and cooks. His passions infuse his nonfiction works, from "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" to "Absolutely on Music," and they also flow into his novels and short stories, bringing everyday moments into his otherwise freely flowing imaginative explorations. In works like "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," "1Q84," and "Men Without Women," his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the mundane, of melancholy and humor, continues to enchant readers and secures Murakami's place as one of the most cherished and beloved writers worldwide.