Haruki Murakami’s New Book to be Released in April
'1Q84' Final Volume of Murukami
Murakami fans, rejoice! The most celebrated Japanese author has a new book coming out this April.
According to reports, its publisher, Bungeishunju, recently posted a small advert in newspapers, which only read: Haruki Murakami: Long awaited novel to arrive in April.
It was quite a tease, as no further details about the upcoming novel have been announced, except that it would be in Japanese. There was also no information on when an English translation would be available, so fans would have to patiently wait.
It's been three years since Murakami released the final volume of the 1Q84 trilogy in Japanese -- and a little over a year since it was published in English -- which took the literary world by storm. At more than 900 pages, the book is a play on George Orwell's 1984, telling the story of a male novelist and a female serial killer who exist in parallel universes but are drawn magnetically towards each other.
The plot of his past works bordering between the believable and unbelievable keeps us wondering what the 1Q84 follow-up will be all about.
The NY Daily News speculated that 'there will be cats (that may or may not talk) and probably some awkward sex too' in the new book. There are also talks that it could be a fourth part to 1Q84.
Since debuting with Hear the Wind Sing in 1979, Murakami has gone on to write twelve novels and several collections of short stories, which have been translated into more than forty languages and have appeared on best-selling lists across the world.
His best-known work to date, Norwegian Wood, has sold more than ten million copies in Japan and two million overseas since it was published in 1987. It was later turned into a film by director Tran Anh Hung.
Being one of the greatest living contemporary novelists, Murakami remains to be a favorite bet for a Nobel Prize in Literature, and there is no doubt that his upcoming masterpiece will once again be a worldwide hit.