Monday, August 25, 2014

Haruki Murakami: 'My lifetime dream is to be sitting at the bottom of a well'

The Japanese author talked writing, heroes, domestic life, dreams and how his life informs his novels at a Guardian book club at the Edinburgh international book festival – and he answered some of your questions

Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami: ‘My imagination is a kind of animal’. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
When you start reading Murakami novels, life starts being like them. That’s their special magic. So said Guardian book club host John Mullan, introducing this month’s guest, the revered and multi-selling Japanese writer, at Edinburgh international book festival

Mullan told of having that very experience as he ordered a coffee on the train to Edinburgh. “You like Haruki Murakami!” exclaimed the waitress, noticing his copy of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. “So do I, what a coincidence!” You and 27 million other people, he was tempted to say – but instead he couldn’t help but mention that he would meet the author later the same day.

Rarely seen in public or in the media, Murakami was cheerful, relaxed and very funny as he answered all the questions in English (“I’ve lived in Hawaii for a while, so my English is different than yours”, he warned). However, a translator was on hand to help out – a woman who, he revealed, was once upon a time a waitress at a bar he and his wife Yoko ran in Tokyo. 
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