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What to read next

The best Japanese fiction in translation

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Recommendations

Fifteen non-fiction books to inspire you

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Extracts

Haruki Murakami: How I write my novels

Newsletter

Reading lists

9 absorbing novels with an academic setting

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Features

Murakami T: Fans share the T-shirts they love

Still from film, Drive My Car, of actors Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura, seated in a car, seen through the windscreen.

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‘It’s difficult to express emotions in movies’: director Ryusuke Hamaguchi on adapting Haruki Murakami’s short story ‘Drive My Car’

A host of short story collections photographed against a red background

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12 short story collections to sink into

A loose, sketched illustration of a black vinyl LP, framed by the words 'Murakami on Charlie Parker' in gold

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‘Just listening puts a big smile on my face’: Haruki Murakami on Charlie Parker

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The best literary quotes about winter

Tokyo has inspired all manner of writers seeking to evoke its unique atmosphere

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Book your holiday: Tokyo

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Books to read to inspire you to start running

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12 VINTAGE books that make perfect last-minute gifts

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Five Japanese classics to read now

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Creating the Murakami Diary 2020

10 of the best VINTAGE books of 2018, as chosen by the team

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10 eerie VINTAGE books to scare you this Halloween

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Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

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Where to start reading Haruki Murakami’s books

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5 things to know about Murakami’s Killing Commendatore

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Life according to Haruki Murakami

Listen to Murakami's Absolutely On Music Playlist

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Listen to Murakami’s Absolutely On Music playlist

A reading from Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 

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A reading from Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84

An exploration of a writer’s life from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Novelist as a Vocation

Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles. 
 
'You end this collection…vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again' Guardian 
 
Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his beautifully surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing. 
 
In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians. 
 
'Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers' New York Times Book Review 
 
'A fascinating glimpse of the peculiar writerly life' Sunday Times 
 
** A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES and NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR**

[The] 11 essays here… deal with all the things that you’d like to ask [Murakami]…in the highly unlikely event that you were able to corner him at a book-signing session… You end this collection of beautiful essays vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers’ award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, which turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, were translated into many languages, including English, and the door was thrown wide open to Murakami’s unique and addictive fictional universe. 
 
Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages a day, after which he runs ten kilometres (he began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races), works on translations, and then reads, listens to records and cooks. His passions colour his non-fiction output, from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to Absolutely On Music, and they also seep into his novels and short stories, providing quotidian moments in his otherwise freewheeling flights of imaginative inquiry. In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Men Without Women, his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring Murakami’s place as one of the world’s most acclaimed and well-loved writers.

A Wild Sheep Chase

the surreal, breakout detective novel, now in a deluxe gift edition

Special 3D Edition

A beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's brilliantly surreal, detective-story classic, now with a new introduction by the author. 
 
The man was leading an aimless life, time passing, one big blank. His girlfriend has perfectly formed ears, ears with the power to bewitch, marvels of creation. The man receives a letter from a friend, enclosing a seemingly innocent photograph of sheep, and a request: place the photograph somewhere it will be seen. 
 
Then, one September afternoon, the phone rings, and the adventure begins. Welcome to the wild sheep chase. 
 
'Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving' New York Times

Wonderfully easy to read and just as wonderfully difficult to make sense of...like the narrator, who slowly accepts the presence in his life of mystery, we slowly recognize the possibility of a new kind of world. Like him, we lean forward and topple headlong into magic

It begins as a detective novel, dips into a screwball comedy, and at its close becomes a tale of possession...A highly accomplished piece of craftsmanship

Mr. Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving

A Wild Sheep Chase has the conventional hull of a thriller - a quest, a mystery, an extraordinary woman, and plenty of elegant duress - but its fantastic superstructure transforms it into something quite different...a science fiction fantasy, a romance, a metaphysical tease, or a dramatisation of philosophical ideas

If you consider yourself an intelligent, sensitive common reader but wish to accommodate something a little removed from your experience, and probably your imagination, I dare you to turn your eyes towards Murakami and head off on a wild sheep chase.

Haruki Murakami (Author, Introducer) In 1978, Haruki Murakami was twenty-nine and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, that turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. 
 
In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Men Without Women, Murakami's distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring his place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.

After Dark

Murakami’s atmospheric masterpiece, now in a deluxe gift edition

A beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's mesmerizingly evocative classic, now with a new introduction by the author 
 
Eyes mark the shape of the city 
 
The midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help. 
 
Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; it has lasted for two months. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00, a hint of life flickers across the television screen in her room, even though its plug has been pulled out. 
 
Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night? 
 
'A captivating mood piece, delicate and wistful' Evening Standard

For sheer love of a thumping narrative, the novel delivers gloriously-Inventive, alluring

A magnificently bewildering achievement-Brilliantly conceived, bold in its surreal scope, sexy and driven by a snappy plot-Exuberant storytelling

Sputnik Sweetheart

a deluxe gift edition of Murakami’s masterful tale of unrequited love

A beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's classic mystery story about love, the cosmos and other fictional universes, now with a new introduction by the author 
 
Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. Miu is glamorous and successful. Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel. 
 
Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? Meanwhile K wonders whether he should confess his own unrequited love for Sumire. 
 
Then, a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island: Sumire has mysteriously vanished... 
 
'Confirms Murakami as a master of his craft... Out of this world' Time Out

Sputnik Sweetheart has touched me deeper and pushed me further than anything I've read in a long time

How does Murakami manage to make poetry while writing of contemporary life and emotions?  I am weak-kneed with admiration

A beautiful novel, as light as a feather, and yet enduringly sad... a captivating book from one of the world's most interesting authors

Murakami has been compared to everyone from Raymond Carver to Raymond Chandler - which should tell you only one thing: he's unique

Confirms Murakami as a master of his craft... Out of this world

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

A special hardback edition of Murakami's epic, magical masterpiece, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, now with a new introduction from the author 
 
Toru Okada's cat has disappeared. 
 
His wife is growing more distant every day. 
 
Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving. 
 
As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. 
 
'Visionary...a bold and generous book' New York Times 
 
'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times

Murakami writes of contemporary Japan, urban alienation and journeys of self-discovery, and in this book he combines recollections of the war with metaphysics, dreams and hallucinations into a powerful and impressionistic work

Deeply philosophical and teasingly perplexing, it is impossible to put down

Murakami weaves these textured layers of reality into a shot-silk garment of deceptive beauty

Critics have variously likened him to Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, Don DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis and Thomas Pynchon - a roster so ill assorted as to suggest Murakami is in fact an original

Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original

How does Murakami manage to make poetry while writing of contemporary life and emotions? I am weak-kneed with admiration

Kafka on the Shore

A beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's mesmerizingly surreal classic, now with a new introduction by the author 
 
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy. 
 
The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. 
 
As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle - one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece. 
 
'Wonderful... Magical and outlandish' Daily Mail 
 
'Hypnotic, spellbinding' The Times 
 
'Cool, fluent and addictive' Daily Telegraph

A magnificently bewildering achievement... Brilliantly conceived, bold in its surreal scope, sexy and driven by a snappy plot... Exuberant storytelling

Laden with philosophical overtones and enchanting wit

Murakami's exquisitely simple prose and deft evocation of the surreal are captivating and sublime

The mysteries are never tainted by explanation, merely beautifully described, delivering a hypnotic read

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, which turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, were translated into many languages, including English, and the door was thrown wide open to Murakami's unique and addictive fictional universe. 
 
Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages a day, after which he runs ten kilometres (he began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races), works on translations, and then reads, listens to records and cooks. His passions colour his non-fiction output, from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to Absolutely On Music, and they also seep into his novels and short stories, providing quotidian moments in his otherwise freewheeling flights of imaginative inquiry. In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Men Without Women, his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring Murakami's place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.

Haruki Murakami

Enter the surreal and enchanting world of Haruki Murakami. 
 
 Toru Okada's cat has disappeared. 
 
 His wife is growing more distant every day. 
 
 Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving. 
 
 As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out. He embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. 
 
 'Mesmerising, surreal, this really is the work of a true original' The Times 
 
 VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS series - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Vintage Classics Japanese Series)

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Grab three collectible editions of Murakami's greatest works over on the Penguin Shop.

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Photo of the Haruki Murakami gift bundle available on the Penguin Shop. The books included in this bundle are Kafka on the Shore designed by Kyoko Nakamura, Norwegian Wood designed by Takeshi Miyasaka and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle designed by Heisuke Kitazawa

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The Haruki Murakami bundle

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