The New Novel Cover Design

The cover design of City and Its Uncertain Walls, the American edition of the English translation of the newest Murakami novel, has been released. The cover was created by Chip Kidd, who has designed a number of Murakami covers for Knopf. It seems to play on the themes of the shadow and the handless clock on the clock tower in the titular City. The book can already be preordered.

The British covers - "covers" in plural, since it appears there will be two covers - were apparently designed by Suzanne Dean. I have found the following statement on Instagram: "We have two different covers, exclusively for @waterstones and independent bookshops, plus a special sprayed edge edition available from Waterstones." There are more fun graphics in this post.  

These covers also seem to refer to shadows, but we also get the image of old dreams in the library (which are - spoiler alert! - shaped like eggs in this book), and there is one of the one-horned Beasts in the background. 

Both versions, the American and the British, are to be released on November 19, 2024. 

In the meantime, the Dutch and Norwegian translations have appeared.

The Norwegian translation, by Ika Kaminka, was published by Pax in April 2024. The cover design is wonderfully abstract. I really like it! Although I am not sure whether dividing the author's name like this Mur-aka-mi works, since it seems to be against the rules of the Japanese pronunciation. On the other hand, it *is* a translation and the designer is free to put their own spin on things or even turn them upside down. There is also a little liberty taken with the title, which (if we believe Google Translate) means  "The City behind the Wall," avoiding the problem of how to translate futashika na (which I have written about in an earlier post).

The Dutch version, published in May by Atlas Contact in Elbrich Fennema's translation, also appears to have two cover designs. They feature the library-related themes: the librarian, a cat with her kittens who lived in the garden, and a teapot on top of a stove.