Japanese Literature Rewards No One
In a dim reflection of Japan’s rootless young people in 2025, the coveted literary awards, Akutagawa and Naoki, awarded … no one.
haruki murakami
Music in Haruki Murakami’s ‘The City and Its Uncertain Walls’
In Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls, music’s presence and absence are central to the concrete and metaphysical spaces the characters migrate between.
Pierre Földes on Murakami Adaptation ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’
French-American composer, painter, and film director Pierre Földes talks about his unbridled animated adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
Haruki Murakami’s ‘Killing Commendatore’ Is Yet Another Turn Around the Tired Fantasy Carousel
Disturbing pedophilia and time-consuming repetition drag down Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore.
Chip Kidd: A Singular Voice in Design
The prolific artist may be a designer first, but he's an evangelist for design second.
An Artful Discussion About ‘The Art of Death’
Edwidge Danticat examines ways we leave the world as seen through her life and the narratives of other great writers.
Diving Deep Into the Other Worlds of Haruki Murakami
Carl Strecher’s The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami is a road map to understand the twisting, metaphysical ‘Over There’ of Murakami.
‘A Temporary Future’ Unpacks David Mitchell’s Nesting Doll Novels
Patrick O'Donnell's survey of David Mitchell's six novels dives into the labyrinthine, "screaming Russian doll" structures they all share.
‘The Strange Library’ Is Classic, Opaque Murakami
Whimsical and frustrating, Murakami's latest may alienate some readers, but fans will want to add this oddity to their collection.
Soul Murder and Dreams in ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage’
Like the cobwebs and spider webs that colonize a neglected basement, Haruki Murakami’s filamentous plot threads trail uncannily across our psyches.
Selling Japan: How Much Is a Nation’s Culture Worth?
Via the billion-dollar Cool Japan Fund Inc, Japan is aiming to become one of the world's dominant culture forces. But can a national culture be commodified so easily?
Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’ Creates a World that Bears a Question
Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 is an excursion into the underbelly of the strange. There is great satisfaction in getting lost in this long novel’s push and pull.