“Standing sentry above the common gloom, Murakami detects phosphorescence everywhere but chiefly in the auras around people, which glow brightest at night and when combined.” —New York Times
“Murakami’s power to imagine is breathtaking.” —Boston Globe
“Anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it’s the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves.” —New York Times Book Review
“Reading Murakami…is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” —Chicago Tribune
“Murakami is a genius.” —Chicago Tribune
Biography
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author of fiction and nonfiction works. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage topping the New York Times bestsellers list in 2014. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages. Murakami is the recipient of numerous awards, including the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.
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Praise for Books
“Josh Bloomberg’s narration strikes the right balance between detachment and obsession…Bloomberg’s voice—fittingly reserved, a blend of intelligence and sadness—navigates listeners through the coffee shops and hotel lobbies of contemporary Japan as the story takes unexpected, dreamlike turns.” —AudioFile
“Murakami crafts a charming little volume notable for its good-natured and intimate tone…An early section recounting Murakami’s transition from nightclub owner to novelist offers a particularly vivid picture of an artist soaring into flight for the first time.” —Publishers Weekly
“A Japanese Phillip K. Dick with a sense of humor…[Murakami belongs] in the topmost ranks of writers of international stature.” —Newsday
“The bestselling author of wildly imaginative novels like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle here muses ‘in real time’ about his sport and hobby, long-distance running. While Murakami writes that he worked over the text, it seems starkly unself-conscious (or poorly translated)—as when he talks about shining his running shoes. And yet this lack of guardedness as presented in Ray Porter’s forthright and relaxed voice gives the book rare bite. Murakami isn’t pushing his running, or his prose. ‘It doesn’t matter what field you’re talking about, beating somebody else just doesn’t do it for me.’ If Murakami had a point to make, or if Porter had tried harder—had embellished the text or reached for an accent—this recording would fail. Instead it succeeds brilliantly. No secrets here, just the companionship of a dazzling intellect.” —AudioFile
“[Murakami’s] writing injects the rock ‘n’ roll of everyday language into the exquisite silences of Japanese literary prose.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Murakami’s single-minded focus on the task at hand will impress runners and athletes of all levels…His discipline also extends to his writing, which he approaches with the simple but devoted attention of a master craftsman…as always Murakami employs his artful, lucid prose to good effect.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The plot is addictive.” —Detroit Free Press
“Has the fascination of a well-written detective story combined with a surreal dream narrative…full of appealing, well-developed characters.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“An entertaining mix of modern sci-fi, nail-biting suspense, and ancient myth…a sometimes funny, sometimes sinister mystery spoof…[that] also aims at contemporary human concerns.” —Chicago Tribune
“All the hallmarks of Murakami’s greatness are here: restless and sensitive characters, disturbing shifts into altered reality, silky smooth turns of phrase, and a narrative with all the momentum of a roller-coaster.” —Publishers Weekly
“If Kafka were to find himself imprisoned in a novel that had been written by Raymond Chandler and was then forced to develop a sense of humor, the resultant voice might likely resemble that of the protagonist in this latest delight from one of Japan’s leading contemporary writers…Recommended for all serious fiction collections.” —Library Journal
In this propulsive novel, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work in any language fuses science fiction, the hard-boiled thriller, and white-hot satire into a new element of the literary periodic table.
As he searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, Haruki Murakami’s protagonist plunges into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread in which he collides with call girls, plays chaperone to a lovely teenaged psychic, and receives cryptic instructions from a shabby but oracular Sheep Man.
Dance Dance Dance is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through the cultural Cuisinart that is contemporary Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs.
From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore comes this rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running and the integral impact both have made on his life. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers Murakami’s four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Settings range from Tokyo, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston, among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after age fifty, of having seen his race times improve and then fall back.