I had never heard of Haruki Murakami before I started working at Lemuria about four years ago. Our wonderful foreign fiction section became mine to take care of and there were Murakami’s books. I couldn’t take my eyes off a hardback copy of After Dark. It had just come out that year in 2007. Finally, I gave in and took a chance on an author I had never heard of and one that nobody I knew had ever read.
You know the feeling you get when you realize that not only did you find a good book but that you found a new author, a whole body of work in which to indulge? At that time, I could not exactly say yet what it was that was so different about Murakami’s writing. And maybe I am still trying to figure that out. And that’s part of what makes reading and finding other Murakami readers so much fun.
Eventually, other staff members members picked up on Murakami. Kaycie started with After Dark and she quickly came down with Murakami fever. Then Joe–he’s had a serious case of the fever, blazing through all of Murakami’s 14 books in six months! And then I began to realize we had a few customers who were Murakami fans, but they were indeed few. But that was then. It is now Lemuria’s hope, and the hope of Random House publicity director Paul Bogaard’s, that 2011 is the year to expand Haruki Murakami’s American audience.
Fans all over the world have been waiting varying amounts of time since 1Q84 (published in three volumes) came out in Japan two years ago and sold over 4 million copies. The book has since been translated into 42 languages.
It took the teamwork of Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel to translate the English edition. Knopf, an imprint of Random House, decided to publish 1Q84 in a single volume, feeling that Americans readers would value holding the entire story and conclusion in their hands. 1Q84 will hit the shelves October 25th.
Once I heard the first whisper about it, I began to make my plea for an advanced reader copy. Liz, our wonderful Random House rep, provided the treasure! But I could not have imagined the length: nearly a thousand pages. I was determined in my own daily swirl of reading temptation to finish Murakami’s 1Q84. Here is the joy: I am thrilled that it’s 928 pages long. It’s amazing and I’m on page 650 now. Fifty pages at a time fly by.
I’ll just tell you a little bit about the long awaited novel. 1Q84 is a twist on George Orwell’s dystopic novel, 1984. It is not necessary that you have read 1984, though I am sure that it does not hurt. The novel takes place primarily in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1984. The Q represents the Questions in the novel about time and space, the parallel realities that the reader discovers along with the characters. The sound [kyu] is the Japanese sound for the number nine. Neat, eh?
The storyline follows two characters, Aomame [ah-oh-mah-meh] and Tengo, as they navigate a world where a person can have two souls, where a night sky has two moons, and where the Little People mysteriously exert their power. 1Q84 is a love story, a mystery, a dystopia, a story of self-discovery, and a fantasy.
1Q84 the book was designed by the legendary Chip Kidd. The outside will feature a translucent jacket over a printed case and unique page design on the inside.
This is the beginning of a series of blogs about Haruki Murakami and his books. I hope, with the help of other readers, to share the Murakami love this fall on the occasion of what is said to be his magnum opus: 1Q84.
If you have read Murakami, you’d better leave me a comment!
“Most American readers who like Haruki Murakami’s stories do not merely like them. They fall in love. They cling to the meanings they find, they caress the books. They see in Murakami narratives the tones and colors of their own dreams, expressions of something lyrical yet pure, and partly ineffable. Something they know and feel, but maybe cannot explain.”
-Roland Kelts, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Murakami,” A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World
Click here to reserve your copy of 1Q84.
Click here to see all of Haruki Murakami’s books.
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