Haruki Murakami

Born in Kyoto in 1949, Murakami became a full-time writer following the publication of his first novel in 1979. Later, he was truly thrown into the limelight with the publication of Norwegian Wood, which to date has sold more than 4 million copies in Japan alone.

He is now Japan's best-known novelist abroad and the author of many novels as well as short stories and non-fiction, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, After Dark, 1Q84, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.