Haruki Murakami

He is married to Yoko whom he first met while studying at Waseda University.

He donated €80,000 winnings from the International Catalunya Prize to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Murakami was born in post World War II Japan to parents who both taught Japanese literature. As a child he read the works of various American authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Brautigan and Jack Kerouac.

He was heavily influenced by Western culture from a young age and this is often reflected in his works which differentiates him from other Japanese writers.

He studied drama at the Waseda University in Tokyo.

He began his career at a record store. He opened a coffeehouse and jazz bar in Tokyo with his wife in 1974.

In 1978, while he was watching a baseball match in Jingu stadium he was suddenly inspired to write a novel. He began writing and had completed a 200 page novel by autumn of the year and sent the work titled ‘Hear the Wind Sing’ to a new writer’s contest which he won. The novel was published the next year.

His second novel, ‘Pinball, 1973’ was published in 1980. The book explored the themes of loneliness, companionship, and destiny. The novel was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize.

With the success of his novels he chose to pursue writing as a full time career and sold off his jazz club.

In 1982, he released the novel ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’. This along with its preceding two novels comprised the ‘Trilogy of the Rat’ series.

His novel ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ is a surreal and dreamlike narration that alternates between the ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland’ and ‘The End of the World. This novel is considered to be one of his finest works.

The novel ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’ is a part mystery and part fantasy work which combines elements of American and English literature with post war Japanese cultural identity. The award winning story is written in form of a mock-detective tale.