Well-known contemporary Japanese author and likely Nobel Prize candidate Haruki Murakami, will release a new book this April, according to his publisher. It will be his first book in three years since his mammoth 1Q84, which was originally released as a trilogy in Japan.

Details are scarce about the plot, but considering Murakami reuses the same themes in all his books, (to the point where the New York Times Book Review put together a “Haruki Murakami Bingo”) basic plot points can be pieced together. The main character will most likely be middle aged, enjoy drinking beer, feel alienated and lonely, and have an interest in old records. Cats will also make an appearance, as will teenage girls. Despite recycling similar themes and plots, Murakami has a large fanbase–1Q84 sold millions of copies worldwide.

It has been suggested that Murakami’s new work could be an expansion of the 1Q84 series. Murakami has said, “A fourth volume featuring an older ‘Tengo’ may come out…who knows.” Tengo starred as the male lead in the book. “What I can say now is there are stories before (volume 1) and after (volume 3).”

It is unclear if Murakami aims to write a new book or simply a few short stories, something he has done before. The title story in his collection Blind Woman, Sleeping Willow focuses on the protagonist of his novel, Norwegian Wood, several years after the events of that book.

It is highly likely that this upcoming book will be much shorter than 1Q84, given that the trilogy took him five years to pen.

Murakami’s varied influences may help explain his popularity with western readers compared to other Japanese authors. He spends his time reading writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, Philip K. Dick, and Truman Capote, and also translated their works into Japanese. Most recently, during the composition of this current work, he translated Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. 

Although no translation has been commissioned yet, Murakami’s popularity makes it almost certain that one will appear eventually. However, fans who cannot read Japanese will probably have to wait two or three years to read it, the average time it takes translators to bring his works into English. In the meantime, bored readers can read through Murakami’s long list of other books: ten novels, three short story collections, two non-fiction works, and two out-of-print novellas (the first two stories he ever wrote). His most well-known works include Norwegian Wood, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Image Courtesy : Haruki Murakami

The article New Haruki Murakami Novel Announced appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Sapporo Breweries announced on January 5 that it is webcasting a special commercial-message featuring narrations scripted by writer Haruki Murakami and footage produced by movie director Hirokazu Koreeda in a special advertising campaign to encourage the people of Japan to move forward despite difficulties caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The web commercial is based on a series of four TV commercials aired during the Hakone Ekiden (long-distance college relay road race) on January 2-3, 2012, a nationally popular New Year event broadcast live across Japan. The race is a round trip between Tokyo and the resort town of Hakone.

Author Murakami, who found the intention of the campaign personally agreeable, wrote narrations for the TV commercials (*) featuring acts of running. A runner himself, Murakami agreed for the first time to take on writing commercial narrations. He intends to donate all of his writing fees to disaster-stricken areas through the Japanese Red Cross Society. Moreover, director Koreeda, who also agreed to the intention of the advertisement, planned and directed the commercials. The narrations were voiced by actress Yukie Nakama.

Koreeda also combined the four commercials into a 3-minute, 32-second special movie, made available on the company’s website from January 5, 2012. Visitors to the site can read Murakami’s narrations in their entirety. The webcast will be available until the end of January.

The company wishes that the special corporate ad would serve as encouragement for the future of the Japanese people, or as “tasuki” — a sash of cloth worn by ekiden runners — carrying the desire to revitalize Japan and to be passed on from the company to the people of Japan.

(*) Murakami personally wrote the narrations for the TV commercials based on his book “What I Talk about When Talking about Running: A Memoir” (available as a paperback book in the Bunshun Bunko series).

The article Haruki Murakami and Hirokazu Koreeda’s Campaign to Encourage People of Japan appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Whether in the cooling shade or the bright sun, a good book is always great company for the summer. But which book should you grab? If you’ve already made your way through the Twilight Saga, the Harry Potter Chronicles and the Millennium Series and find that the rest of the summer needs something without a franchise, these five suggestions will guide your way.

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
For a proper time-killer, get your hands on Zafón’s mesmerizing mystery novel about love and obsession. Set in post-Spanish Civil War, a boy’s encounter with an old book ends up consuming his young life and determines his fate. Even in English, the words are incredibly well written and especially Fermín, the boy’s friend, a ravenous hedonist with a tortured past, delivers one memorable quote after another. Excitement, intrigue, tears, laughter — Zafón takes you through it all with such passion and crude irony, you won’t be able to put it down.

Africa Trilogy - Jacob Ejersbo
Forget Karen Blixen for a moment. This is the deep end of Scandinavian literature — where happy endings are not in the vocabulary. Ejersbo died of cancer at the age of 40 but his last work is an accomplished critique of civilization. Despite a decent amount of hopelessness, the work delivers a graceful and heartfelt tale of two friends’ coming of age. Set in Tanzania, the story alternates between the viewpoints of Christian from Denmark and Marcus, a local boy, as they explore their common friendship and the good and evil (mostly evil) of their own existence.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Known as the ultimate piece of Latin American literature, the story of the rise and fall of the Buendía Family is riddled with intense emotions and tragedy. But it also explores the ultimate expressions of human nature and the destructive evolution of time. The tone is brutal, even tragicomic, but once you get into the mystique of the Family, you realize that their success and failure is not random and that generations are connected by a paradox of time beyond our control. Not for the impatient reader but its strangeness is terribly intriguing.

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Murakami is known for his lyrical themes and titles and Norwegian Wood (a Beatles song) is no exception. The 1987 novel is essentially about clinging to loss and the painful turmoil of love, friendship and death. Carefully constructed around Turo, his relationships with the delicate Naoko and the vivacious Midori lays the foundation for a beautiful and melancholic journey through Japanese youth culture in the late 1960s.

Either/Or: A Fragment of Life - Søren Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard’s work is hardcore philosophy disguised as clever literature. Before you point out the double-mentioning of Danish writers, consider this: Either/Or is everything — a ruthless take on identity, a bible on existentialism, a guide to getting laid and a collection of advice on how to live life without dying of boredom. Kierkegaard is literally a philosophy superstar and this work in particular emphasizes the most encompassing of thoughts: the journey of finding yourself can be a bit of a life-long project.

The article Five Books You Should Devour This Summer appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.