Thursday, July 4, 2013

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki released in Korean 4 days ago! (how did we miss it...?)

The Korean translation of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was published on July 1.  As far as we know, it is the first translation of the novel into a foreign language. 


Claire Lee from Korea Herald writes (without mentioning the name of the translator, but we believe it is Yang Ŏk-Kwan) :

Murakami’s latest novel tops bestseller lists on day of its Korean release

The Korean edition of famed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest novel “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” topped the local bestseller lists on the day of its release Monday. 
The book was released on Monday morning and instantly topped the local bestseller lists of major online bookstores, including Yes24, Kyobo Book Centre and Aladdin. According to Yes24, some 3,500 copies had been preordered since June 24.

Kyobo Book Centre’s Gwanghwamun branch, on the other hand, was the first bookstore to sell the Korean edition of the novel at noon on Monday.

“We have sold about 4,850 copies so far,” said Jin Young-kyun from Kyobo Book Centre at 2 p.m. on Monday. “This number includes the online preorders, which were about 3,000, as well as some 1,000 copies of Japanese editions. It seems like some local readers decided to purchase the Japanese editions earlier as they didn’t want to wait for the Korean edition’s release.”

The book’s Korean publisher Minumsa reportedly competed fiercely with the nation’s top publishing houses, including Munhagdongne Publishing Group and Gimmyoung Publishers, to secure the rights to publish the Korean edition of the novel.

Minumsa declined to disclose how much it paid for the rights, but it has been reported by the local media outlets that the Korean publishing house paid at least 150 million yen ($1.5 million).

Minumsa said among the 200,000 copies it has printed, 180,000 had been pre-ordered by local bookstores prior to the official release date, July 1. The publishing house is printing an additional 50,000 copies, Minumsa said. 

To read the whole story go to:

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