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A beautifully illustrated edition of the internationally bestselling author''s
meditation on memory and family.
In this meditation on memory and what makes us who we are, Haruki Murakami
recalls his relationship with his father – the son of a priest who might have
become a priest himself had a clerical error not sent him to fight in the Second
World War. Murakami’s father wrote accomplished haiku and eventually became
a teacher, but as Haruki grew older they found they had less and less in
common. They went on to be estranged for twenty years, only reconciling on his
father’s deathbed.
This haunting personal essay is a reflection on what it means to be a father and
what it means to be a son – on what it means to be loved and to be abandoned
– and a meditation on a particular era of Japanese history, through the aftermath
of the Second World War and on into the present. It is a beautiful short work of
family history from one of the world’s most beloved, iconic writers.
‘The world’s most popular cult novelist’ Observer
‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times
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.
meditation on memory and family.
In this meditation on memory and what makes us who we are, Haruki Murakami
recalls his relationship with his father – the son of a priest who might have
become a priest himself had a clerical error not sent him to fight in the Second
World War. Murakami’s father wrote accomplished haiku and eventually became
a teacher, but as Haruki grew older they found they had less and less in
common. They went on to be estranged for twenty years, only reconciling on his
father’s deathbed.
This haunting personal essay is a reflection on what it means to be a father and
what it means to be a son – on what it means to be loved and to be abandoned
– and a meditation on a particular era of Japanese history, through the aftermath
of the Second World War and on into the present. It is a beautiful short work of
family history from one of the world’s most beloved, iconic writers.
‘The world’s most popular cult novelist’ Observer
‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times
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.
- Publisher Name:Vintage Publishing
- ISBN: 9781787305724
- Author:Murakami, Haruki
- Publication Date:2026-10-20
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