Wind/ Pinball

Murakami fans will no doubt delight in this new publication. For newcomers, these early works are an excellent introduction to a writer who has since become one of the most influential novelists of his generation – Hannah Beckerman * Observer *
Murakami’s way of making emotionally resonant images and symbols bump around on the page, and in one’s mind, remains fresh, miraculously, more than 35 years on – Jerome Boyd Maunsell * Evening Standard *
Wind/Pinball is a fresh, heart-warming dose of the Japanese master * Economist *
To read a Murakami book is to feel comforted by the familiarity and predictability of its strangeness. These are Murakami’s two earliest novels and so, like archaeological artefacts, they detail the early construction of his now-famous style. – Claire Kohda Hazelton * The Times Literary Supplement *
quintessential Murakami… an excellent introduction to a writer who has since become one of the most influential novelists of his generation – Guardian * Hannah Beckerman *
This two-for-the-price-of-one hardback really is something special… The decorative covers are exquisite, but it is the literature between them that cemented Murakami as one of the world’s most celebrated writers – Dan Lewis * Travel Guide *
Early Murakami isn’t Murakami-in-the-making, it’s already and entirely Murakami – Ian Sansom * Guardian *
bizarre and often surreal, these stories act as an intriguing exploration into Murakami’s wacky mind and thought processes * Herald *
Wind/Pinball makes a great introduction to Murakami for new readers, and is a real treat for long-time fans – Brendan Wright * Nudge *
From the very beginning, it seems, Murakami has had the ability to make a story in which nothing happens seem completely irresistible. And to make almost any degree of bizarreness seem completely natural * Skinny *

Haruki Murakami

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, First Person Singular, and The City and Its Uncertain Walls, 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.

Ted Goossen

Theodore (Ted) Goossen has translated the work of many Japanese writers, most notably Naoya Shiga, Haruki Murakami, and Hiromi Kawakami. He is the editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997) and the co-editor and founder, with Motoyuki Shibata, of the annual literary journal Monkey Business (now Monkey: new writing from Japan), which, since 2011, has introduced a new generation of Japanese writers to English-speaking readers. Essays and stories by, as well as interviews with, Murakami are a staple of every issue.

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