About the Author

Murakami Haruki (村上春樹） was born on January 12th in 1949 in Kyoto, Japan. He is a famous Japanese writer and American literary translator. His books and stories are widely known not only in Japan but also in the world. His writing style is mostly influenced by American writers. It is not as heavy as World War II, but relaxed and light.

Murakami’s parents both taught Japanese Literature in Japan. They had an open education and encouraged him to read. Thus, Murakami was freely to read anything he wants. Although his father expected him to read more Japanese classical literature, he loved reading cheap and secondary-handed western original literature. He wanted to go to law school but he failed. After a year of retaking, he found that what he really liked was literature. He was admitted to the drama department at Waseda University in Tokyo. Due to the student movement, he barely attended classes until April 1968, when he returned to school and met his current wife–Yoko. They opened a cafe and jazz bar called Peter Cat in Tokyo. Murakami spent 7 years to finish his diploma.

In April 1978, a baseball game changed his life. From that year on, he picked up his pen and began to write novels. Hear the Wind Sing is his first novel and won the first prize which encouraged him to continue writing. After that, he moved with his wife and devoted himself to writing. He had more time. Thus, his sentence became longer and his stories more coherent. His third novel won him a prize in Japanese literature. In 1986, he traveled to Europe with his wife for three years and completed the masterpiece that made him famous in the world–Norwegian Wood.