Skip to footer

'1Q84' author Haruki Murakami makes his first public appearance in Japan in 18 years

Murakami appeared at Kyoto University to discuss his new novel 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.'

|
Elena Seibert/Knopf
Haruki Murakami's newest novel, 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage,' does not yet have a US release date.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Japanese writing star Haruki Murakami spoke about his new novel at Kyoto University in what was his first public appearance in Japan in 18 years.

Murakami’s book, “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage,” became an immediate bestseller in Japan after its April release, but there are as yet no plans to print the book in English.

Those who wished to attend Murakami’s engagement entered a lottery and 500 were eventually selected. During the event, the author said that he decided to appear in honor of psychologist Hayao Kawai, a friend of his who died in 2007.

At the university, Murakami discussed the themes of his new novel, which focuses on an engineer who travels to Finland and Japan to meet with friends with whom he had severed ties years earlier.

“People get hurt and close their minds, but as time passes, they gradually open up, and they grow as they repeat that,” the author said, according to Reuters. “This novel is about growth.”

Murakami’s last public appearance came after the 1995 Kobe earthquake, when he read his work in an attempt to raise money for those affected.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to '1Q84' author Haruki Murakami makes his first public appearance in Japan in 18 years
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0507/1Q84-author-Haruki-Murakami-makes-his-first-public-appearance-in-Japan-in-18-years
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe