Global News Desk:
Only 1,100 lucky audience members
were there to hear the yet-to-be published short story “Kaho,” read aloud by
bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami himself.
The reading took place at a
Friday night book event called “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 told the audience, adding that he wrote it for the event.
The last Murakami short released was “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 said. “Its content and style have to
fit recitation, and it has to be relatively short.” The story still came out
too long, he said, and read it in two parts during the event at Waseda
University.
Journalists at the event were
allowed to report story names, but not their content. Now 75 and one of the
world’s most popular and acclaimed novelists, Murakami debuted with “Hear the
Wind Sing” in 1979, four years after he began writing while running a jazz bar
in Tokyo. His 1987 romantic novel “Norwegian Wood” was his first bestseller,
establishing him as a young literary star. His latest bestselling full-length
novel, “The City and its Uncertain Walls,” was released in 2023 in Japan and is
awaiting an English release.
The Owl event is a second for him
and Kawakami, who said she is a longtime Murakami fan from years before she
became a novelist. The two took turns reading aloud at a 2019 event where
Murakami unveiled an earlier short story, “Confessions of a Shinagawa
Monkey," later published as part of the short story collection “First
Person Singular.”
Kawakami, now an acclaimed author
known 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” was shortlisted for the 2022
International Booker Prize. (News Source By abc News)