Haruki Murakami has revealed that he became seriously ill while writing his latest novel, losing 17 kilos and at one point doubting whether he would ever write again.
In a recent interview, the Japanese author said that during his illness he could barely walk and had lost all desire to write. As he recovered, he worried that he might not be able to produce anything worthwhile again.
“Immensely happy” to write again
After leaving hospital and gradually regaining the weight he had lost, Murakami said the urge to write returned, and described that moment as making him “immensely happy”. He said the experience had only strengthened his wish to keep writing for as long as he is able.
A first female protagonist
The novel that came out of this period, published in English as The Story of Kaho, reached Japanese bookshops last week. It is the first of his novels to have a woman as its main character.
Murakami is known for endings that leave much unresolved, but he said that this time he wanted to give the story a clearer conclusion, and hoped that some of the joy he felt on recovering would come through in the book.
A worldwide readership
Now in his seventies, Murakami is one of the most widely read living novelists. Books such as Norwegian Wood, Sputnik Sweetheart and Kafka on the Shore have been translated into more than 50 languages, and he has a large following in Spain, where his novels regularly top the bestseller lists.
He is frequently tipped for the Nobel Prize in Literature and has already received a number of major international awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for Literature in 2023.
No date has yet been announced for translations of the new novel into English or Spanish.
