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Great news for Haruki Murakami fans: the long-awaited English translation of 1Q84, the writer's epic novel in three volumes that has proved a huge hit in his native Japan, will be published in English in October. All three sections are to appear together in a single 1,000-page volume, translated by Harvard professor Jay Rubin.
The news came in an exuberant Tweet from Knopf US publicity director Paul Bogaards. "Haruki Murakami's long-awaited magnum opus, 1Q84, out from Knopf 10/25," he told the world. "In one volume. Booyah! Midnight store openings for this one?"
Harry Potter-style late-night bookshop openings may be pushing it, but such is the passion of Murakami's loyal readers that publication will certainly be an event. The appearance of the first volume of 1Q84 in Japan in 2008 was met with near-hysteria thanks to the five-year hiatus since the arrival of Murakami's previous longform novel, Kafka by the Shore.
Stung by publication of advance revelations about that book, the writer and his publisher Shinchosha had kept all details of 1Q84 a closely-guarded secret, stoking feverish anticipation. Amid a flood of advance orders, Shinchosha upped its first print run from 100,000 to 480,000, and bookshops were mobbed on publication day, with sales reaching a million within a month.
The title of 1Q84 is taken to be a play on George Orwell's 1984 – the Japanese number nine having the same pronunciation as the letter Q – though others have also suggested the title is a tribute to The True Story of Ah Q, a novella by Chinese writer Lu Xun.
True to form, the story features a surreal narrative and enigmatic characters, including Aomame, a 30-year-old woman whose name means "Green Bean". Aomame – who wanders into a form of parallel reality early in the novel, which she detects by observing minute differences in the physical world around her – commits a series of murders for reasons that are at first obscure. She reflects on this violence in the book with a humorous blandness, visible in a quotation from the Japan Times review:
"If I had not been born with this last name, I wonder if my life would have taken a different shape. For example, if I had a common name like Sato, Tanaka or Suzuki, I might lead a bit more of a relaxed life and look upon the world with a bit more of a magnanimous eye."
Exploring the themes of cult religions, family ties, writing and love, 1Q84 is said to be the story of two characters, a man and a woman, in search of one another. The narrative moves between Aomame's story and that of Tengo, a mathematics tutor with – typically for male characters in Murakami novels – a generally unsuccessful life. Tengo gets involved in an agreement to rewrite on the sly an imperfect novel about a community of little people entered by a teenager for a literary prize. But as the project advances, Tengo realises the dyslexic young girl has not written the novel at all. Growing increasingly uneasy, he finds out more about her past and her childhood days in the commune of Takashima.
Now 61, Murakami became a national sensation in his native Japan when his breakthrough novel, Norwegian Wood, was published in 1987, and its tale of a student encountering sex, death and a love of the Beatles became a hit among the country's young people. (A film version, directed by Anh Hung Tran, premieres in the UK in March).
Over the past decade he has won an increasingly broad international readership for sophisticated and droll novels exploring alienation and other modern ills, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart and After Dark. He has also written non-fiction: Underground was a series of interviews with those affected by the Tokyo sarin nerve gas attacks, while What I Talk About When I Talk About Running explored his famous passion for marathons.
Murakami won Israel's prestigious literary award, the Jerusalem prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society, in 2009. Despite urgings from pro-Palestinian groups not to accept the award or attend the Jerusalem ceremony, the writer did go, saying: "Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I'm told. It's in my nature. Novelists can't trust anything they haven't seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands. So I chose to see. I chose to speak here rather than say nothing."
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Comments
31 January 2011 3:27PM
Can't wait
31 January 2011 3:28PM
Shantaram was only 957 pages and could have been condensed in about 350...
Still, made a good door-stopper!
So did that Thomas Pynchon thing; could not get pas tthe first 90 pages, let alone the next 900 but with the window open, nothing flies off my desk!
can't wait to see the ranslation: that volume against what kind of deadline? One or several translators? Interesting!
31 January 2011 3:43PM
while What I Talk About When I Talk About Running explored his famous passion for marathons.
Well, not just marathons but about running in general and how the training for such events (Murakami has also tackled an ultramarathon and many triathlons)is similar to the discipline needed to write a book.
I look forward to the book and the cinema release of Norwegian Wood at Cineworld (ha ha.) Cornerhouse, Manchester it is, then.
31 January 2011 3:44PM
I've read a few Haruki Murakami novels and not one has failed to change my life in some small way.
31 January 2011 3:45PM
About time too. Kafka on the Shore was Murakami at his best. The Wind up Bird Chronicle is also an absolute masterpiece; both of those being 6-700 pages and both - certainly compared to Pynchon - are easy to read and not easy to put down. Stuff like Norwegian Wood is annoying fluff in comparison.
31 January 2011 3:50PM
Shantaram was a huge disappointment to me too. Someone who knew very little about India raved about it to someone else who knew very little about India and persuaded me (who knows very little but has at least been there) to read it. It was crap.
Kafka on the Shore and Wind Up Bird Chronicle were really good.
I enjoyed Gravity's Rainbow when I was in my 20's. Tried to re-read it recently and struggled.
Most recently I have loved Brasyl and River of Gods by Ian Macdonald. If you like science fiction check them out.
31 January 2011 3:54PM
Poor English readers. If you know any Japanese, you may also know the English translation of THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE was severely truncated, at the request of Murakami's American publisher. The Dutch translation (by James Westerhoven) is far, far better.
Westerhoven's translation of pts. 1 & 2 of 1q84 appeared last July, to mixed reviews. Most diehard Murakami fans seemed happy with their idol's latest opus, but several first-rank reviewers disagreed. In my view, Murakami has seriously overreached himself this time.
31 January 2011 3:57PM
yawn
31 January 2011 4:04PM
hmmmmmm.
Murakami ... I read Norwegian Wood. It was coherent, some gorgeous prose, but the female characters were almost absurd creations.
Kafka ON the Shore (not BY) is (Americanisms (in translation) aside) stylish, profoundly creative, compulsively readable, disturbing; but trying to find the thread to tie any of this brilliance into even a semblance of meaning is futile.
He's the literary equivalent of 3D movies; stunning, but substance is ultimately sacrificed for the thrill.
I thus remain a Murakami sceptic.
31 January 2011 4:19PM
Argh, October? I wish I found out about this closer to the actual release date.
31 January 2011 4:22PM
Sorry - I agree - reading Murakami is life changing. 1Q84 cannot be published too soon.
31 January 2011 4:26PM
Isn't that the plot of any number of stories in Analog or Amazing or Astounding magazines between 1933 and 1960?
Where do they get their ideas!
31 January 2011 4:36PM
I am sure many English people will find Murakami work stimulating and enjoyable.
But I think so I would recommend to read first Norwegian Wood or Dance Dance Dance if you have not read any of his work already. They are easier and will help you get used to his style maybe.
31 January 2011 4:37PM
Yay!
31 January 2011 4:47PM
I started on Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World - ambitious. I must remember to finish it one day. It didn't put me off the others though. I think I prefer The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to Norwegian Wood although I couldn't say why. I just love the way he writes. Looking back I'm not sure I got much from Kafka On The Shore but I loved reading it. I love his attention to food, its mesmerizing. I didn't enjoy Dance Dance Dance or A Wild Sheep Chase as much, impenetrably strange, rather nonplussed at the end. Still, looking forward to this.
31 January 2011 5:01PM
This is great news.
I shall clear a six inch wide spot on my book case in anticipation.
31 January 2011 5:05PM
Kafka on the Shore
31 January 2011 5:13PM
I'm pretty sure Aomame means "blue bean"?
31 January 2011 5:24PM
Can't wait - but 10 months is so long...
look forward to the Norwegian wood film - at least that's only 3 months
31 January 2011 5:30PM
He's been writing the same book and over and over and over again for many years. I want to get excited about this but...
Has anybody read the Japanese one. Is it any different in style or tone?
31 January 2011 5:32PM
to what he has done before, I mean.
31 January 2011 5:51PM
The Japanese word Ao 青 extends further into the green spectrum than the English word blue. Certain things the Japanese call '青' we call green such as traffic lights, but even so here it may be better as blue, cf blue-grass.
A foreigner joke is "You've been in Japan too long when you in an argument about the colour of the traffic lights are, and it's you that is insisting they are blue"
31 January 2011 5:57PM
@Hoshino Sakura
"I am sure many English people will find Murakami work stimulating and enjoyable.
But I think so I would recommend to read first Norwegian Wood or Dance Dance Dance if you have not read any of his work already. They are easier and will help you get used to his style maybe."
I am sure many English people will find this patronising - Murakami is not James Joyce ffs! Where do you think half his influences come from?!
His career trajectory parallels David Lynch in many ways...
Like Lynch (whose ideas he outright copied in Sputnik Sweatheart - someone's hair turning white suddenly / seeing oneself in two places etc.), he's reached the stage where he's just recapitulating old ideas in new patterns.
Murakami peaked with Wind up Bird Chronicle, Lynch with Fire Walk With Me.
Kafka On The Shore was like a best hits of Murakami - kookie characters, semi-parallel storylines etc.
Mulholland Drive was a similar exercise from Lynch.
Both are past their best but it's so tempting to give their latest works a go for old time's sake!
31 January 2011 6:21PM
Sounds like a good storyline!
31 January 2011 6:29PM
Wheeee! Also cannot wait for Norwegian Wood to be released in cinemas.
31 January 2011 6:42PM
This is great news! Since I'm unlikely to be up to speed with reading Japanese by October, English will suffice as a start!
For those of you who'd like to get a start on practicing reading Japanese epics in English, I can recommend Murasaki Shikibu's Heian period epic The Tale of Genji. My copy comes in at 1184 pages in small print. Different in tone and style and substance, but sweeping and a window into Japanese history.
And hooray for a movie of Norwegian Wood in March!!!!
2011 is shaping up nicely!
31 January 2011 9:17PM
@dancedancedance
Literally the "ao" part means blue, but the Japanese and English uses of blue and green don't exactly correspond. Some things we call green they call blue ("ao"), like traffic lights for example. So the constituent parts of "aomame" mean "blue + bean", but together they are best translated as "green bean", as the article does.
31 January 2011 9:24PM
Yeah, but it's an absolute corker! If you're going to keep rewriting a book, make sure it's a good one.
I agree that Kafka on the Shore felt a bit like a rewrite of Wind-up Bird, but I think the others are different enough.
Can't wait for 1Q84.
31 January 2011 9:30PM
i have his jogging book but havent read it. is it any good? i leave it on the coffee table to impress the chicks.
31 January 2011 9:39PM
Kafka on the Shore changed my life too - for the worse.
If I'd known it was another meandering magic realism tale without a point - or, it seemed at times, an end - I would not have bothered.
1 February 2011 12:39AM
wtfcuk
LOL!!! I love the joke - I will say it soon I am sure.
You are right about color, when I was in the US I sometimes had green and blue confused because the spectrum and language are not aligned.
I like your posts - do you live in Japan?.
1 February 2011 11:05AM
I hope the film will do the book justice. Murakami's writing is beautiful, even in translation.
1 February 2011 1:40PM
@nearlydan
It was wonderful the first time, years ago, but it's worn thin with me for a while now. It's less the story and more the characters and their struggles that are repeated too often for my liking. And the semi-fantasy, flat, almost twee vibe he gives off seems very passe to me now.
The Tony Takitani film and the short story 'On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning' is still great.
http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/murakami-perfect.html
1 February 2011 1:41PM
are still great* EDIT FUNCTION PLEASE!!!
1 February 2011 3:47PM
It's all personal, I guess, but Murakami influences my whole life too - because he's the only author who seems to experience the world the way I do. I don't think it's a literary merit thing (nor a pot-boiling cheap-thrill thing for that matter). I routinely feel that I'm living in a world that is parallel but separate to the mainstream - and that's where his characters generally end up. Like the wonderful Dolphin Hotel. There must be a lot of us, I reckon, so don't laugh to hard at me! He asks questions about exitence you would,t think up on your own.
Just for info for co-fans - Kafka is my favourite - Wind-Up Bird the most impressive Dance, Dance, Dance the one I listen to over and over and over, and Norwegian Wood the odd one out, and the only one that depresses me.
And some of the shorts are also great - one of them is on the GCSE syllabus now, by the way. Hmm.
The poster who thinks they're all the same may also have noted that all Shakespeare's comedies end with betrothals or marriages - and many of Mr Conrad's novels involve young(ish) men crossing shadow lines over and over again (normally on ships). Most sonnets have 14 lines too don't they? Unforgiveable slavery to a regime. At least they're not all about love....... although funnily enough quite a few good ones are.
1 February 2011 5:52PM
I used to absolutley love Murakami, then I developed Murakami fatigue. Read too many books which seemed to have the same character in it in a plot reminiscent of all his others. Which actually isn't always a bad thing, but gets a bit much after a while.
But maybe it's time to return to him. I still have images of Wind Up Bird Chronicle flitting around inside my head. Wish I could read it in the original Japanese though.
2 February 2011 12:25PM
I'll read this, but in the hope it shatters my theory about Murakami's diminishing returns.
The first couple of books of his that I read (Wild Sheep Chase; Dance, Dance, Dance) instantly propelled Murakami to the pedestal of my favourite writer.
And even though I've enjoyed all the books of his that I've read since, the magic fades a little more each time.
I wouldn't cite any falling off in his quality however, as I've read them out of sequence. I suspect it's more a case of the Murakami fatigue as mentioned by another poster. This is backed up by my observation that people's favourite Murakami tends to be amongst the first they've read; whichever it happens to be.
Often it seems to be 'Wind up Bird' as that is regarded as his masterpiece (and is therefore turned to first), but coming to that as the fourth or fifth of his books I'd read it left me underwhelmed. Far too long, with what I thought might be a book as good as 'Wild Sheep Chase' hiding somewhere within it.
As 1Q84 is something of an epic I'll be interested in seeing how it bears up in comparison with Bolano's '2666'. Bolano being the author who may have supplanted Murakami in my affections.
2 February 2011 1:02PM
Whoop! I can't wait, I've cleared out October/November and I know I'm going to enjoy it. Every Murakami book I've read has affected me in some way or another deep inside of me. It's going to agony waiting for the book, but I will persevere!
*dances*