New Murakami Novel Appeared Today

A new novel by Murakami Haruki, Kichidanchōgoroshi, appears in Japan. Shinchōsha has just released a brief animated ad featuring a decorative sword, which is also featured on the covers of both volumes of the novel.

                    

The book appeared on February 24 at midnight (about an hour ago), but the press is already publishing articles about the excitement surrounding the release. For example, an article in Mainichi Shinbun described a long line of "harukists" (Haruki fans) that formed yesterday in front of Tsutaya Ebisubashi bookstore in Osaka, where the book was to go on sale at midnight. It seems that the bookstore installed a countdown panel yesterday showing the time left till the release. The books were laid out in the store around 10pm and covered with cloth until the release. The bookstore manager, Akihito Kuroki said, "When I take the book into my hands, I become a harukist myself." 

Sankei Shinbun reports on people waiting to get their hands on the book in the Sanseido bookstore at their Kanda Jinbocho location. The bookstore also organized a countdown before the release and an "all-night new-novel reading event" is to follow.

Here is the "unveiling" in Tsutaya in Osaka: 

Two New (Or Not So New) Translations of Tsukuru Tazaki

I wanted to announce two translations of Tsukuru Tazaki into Asian languages, which I have missed before.  One is a translation into Malay by Togari Yasuki and Ali Alman Mazwin, published last year by Buku Fixi, an independent publisher founded in 2011 by film director Amir Muhammad.
The title in Malay is Tsukuru Tazaki tampa warna dan tahun-tahun kembara, which, according to Google translate is a literal rendering of the Japanese title.

Another translation worth noting, also of Tsukuru Tazaki, is that into Vietnamese, by Uyên Thiểm. According to Amazon.com, the book came out in October 2014 from NHI Nam. The title, Tazaki Tsukuru không màu và những năm thing hành hương, also appears to be a faithful translation of the Japanese title.

       

Italian Translator of Tsukuru Tazaki, Antonietta Pastore, Wins Japanese Translation Prize

I haven't written much on this blog about Italian Murakami translations, probably because I don't speak Italian, but a few days ago today I found that Antonietta Pastore won the 21st Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature.  This is an annual prize given by the Japanese publisher Kodansha, which was awarded to Pastore for her translation of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki.

Congratulations!

Jay Rubin is the only other Murakami translator to have received the award, which came his way in 2003 for the translation of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

      

Here is a link to a 2014 interview with Pastore about the book and its translation.  Apart from works by Murakami -- Wind and Flipper, Men Without Women, A Wild Sheep Chase, South of the Border West of the Sun (with Mimma de Petra), The Elephant Vanishes, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, to name just a few titles --  Pastore has also translated Natsume Soseki, Kawakami Hiromi, and other writers. Her translation of Murakami's Novelist As a Vocation, titled Il mestiere dello scrittore, is due out in mid-February, according to the announcement on the page of Murakami's Italian publisher, Einaudi.

Speaking of awards, as I have mentioned on this blog before, Haruki Murakami won the Hans Christian Andersen Award last year. The award ceremony took place last October in Odense, and was accompanied by a series of events in late October and early November, including readings and interviews in different Danish cities. Mette Holm, Murakami's Danish translator, moderated several of these events. Below is a photo from one lively conversation between Murakami and Holm, which took place on November 2 in the super modern Royal Library in Copenhagen, known as "The Black Diamond." I post this picture because one doesn't often see pictures of Haruki Murakami bursting out laughing. Here is the link to the story on the Library webpage. And here you can see the picture of the library.