Haruki Murakami unveils his new short story at a Tokyo literary event

TOKYO – Only 1,100 fortunate target market participants have been there to listen to the yet-to-be revealed short story “Kaho,” learn aloud via bestselling Japanese creator Haruki Murakami himself.

The studying happened at a Friday night time guide event known as “The Owl Reads in Spring” — a fundraiser for the Waseda International House of Literature library at Murakami’s alma mater in Tokyo, also featuring award-winning author Mieko Kawakami.

“It’s freshly made, only about 10 days ago,” Murakami instructed the target market, including that he wrote it for the event. The ultimate Murakami short launched used to be “First Person Singular,” more than three years ago. His prolific literary work also includes essays, non-fiction and translation.

Murakami, relaxed and casually dressed in sneakers, jeans and a dark jacket, said writing a story for recitation was not easy.

“It’s actually quite hard to write a new story for reciting,” Murakami stated. “Its content and style have to fit recitation, and it has to be relatively short.” The story nonetheless got here out too lengthy, he stated, and browse it in two portions right through the event at Waseda University.

Journalists at the event have been allowed to record story names, however now not their content material.

Now 75 and one of the most international’s most well liked and acclaimed novelists, Murakami debuted with “Hear the Wind Sing” in 1979, 4 years after he started writing whilst operating a jazz bar in Tokyo. His 1987 romantic novel “Norwegian Wood” used to be his first bestseller, organising him as a younger literary celebrity. His newest bestselling full-length novel, “The City and its Uncertain Walls,” was released in 2023 in Japan and is waiting for an English liberate.

The Owl event is a second for him and Kawakami, who stated she is a longtime Murakami fan from years prior to she changed into a novelist. The two took turns studying aloud at a 2019 event the place Murakami unveiled an previous short story, “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” later published as part of the short story collection “First Person Singular.”

Kawakami, now an acclaimed creator identified for her bestseller “Breasts and Eggs,” translated to English in 2020, recited her new short story titled “Watashitachi no Doa (Our Doors)” at Friday’s event.

She debuted as poet and her first novella, “My Ego, My Teeth and the World,” in 2007, and her novel “Heaven” used to be shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.