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The Japanese author Haruki Murakami
Photo: AP
The Japanese best-selling author Haruki Murakami read from his unpublished short story “Kaho” to an audience of 1,100 in Tokyo.
"It's very fresh, only written about 10 days ago," Murakami told the audience at the fundraiser "The Owl Reads in Spring" in the library of the "Waseda International House of Literature."
He wrote the story for this event.
Murakami's last short story collection, First Person Singular, was published more than three years ago.
His extensive literary work also includes essays, non-fiction books and translations.
Murakami: Not easy to write for a reading
Murakami, dressed in sneakers, jeans and a dark jacket, said: "It's actually quite difficult to write a new story for a reading.
The content and style must match the reading, and it must be relatively short." The story still became too long, he said, and read it in two parts during the event at Waseda University.
The journalists present were allowed to name the stories, but were not allowed to explain their content.
The 75-year-old Murakami is one of the most popular and best-known writers in the world.
His debut "When the Wind Sings" was published in 1979, four years after he began writing in a jazz bar in Tokyo.
The romance novel “Naoko's Smile,” published in 1987, was his first bestseller and made him a young literary star.
The novel “The City and its Uncertain Wall” was published in Japan in 2023, and the book has been available in a German translation since the beginning of 2024.
The writer Mieko Kawakami also appeared at the reading in Tokyo.
Even before she became a writer, she was a long-time fan of Murakami, said the 47-year-old.
She became best known for her bestseller “Breasts and Eggs,” which was published in German in 2020.
jpa/AP