Haruki Murakami

, those collected in The Elephant Vanishes (1993) and After the Quake (2002), and done translations.

Has participated at long-distance-races since 1982, running his first marathon on the original track between Athens and the city of Marathon.

" His first novel was Hear the Wind Sing (1979).

Haruki Murakami graduated from Waseda University, Tokyo, in 1975. Widely considered one of Japan's most important 20th-century novelists. His often solitary, withdrawn, and world-weary protagonists are generally stripped of Japanese tradition. Frequently called postmodern, his fiction, which often includes elements of surreal fantasy and is sprinkled with references to American popular culture, is cool and contemporary; his distinctive style is often characterized as "hard-boiled.

After studying theater arts at Waseda University in Tokyo, he ran his jazz bar "Peter Cat" from 1974 to 1982.

Since then he has published such novels as Pinball 1973 (1980), A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Norwegian Wood (1987), Dance, Dance, Dance (1988), The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995), The Sputnik Sweetheart (1999), and Kafka on the Shore (2002). He has also written short stories, e. g.