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 Who
am I? What is life? Author Haruki Murakami to the rescue
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[January 06, 2015] By
Elaine Lies
TOKYO (Reuters) - Worried
about your future, the meaning of life or the realness
of unreal things? Ask Japanese author Haruki Murakami
for enlightenment - or as much as a surrealist can give.
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 Though a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize in
Literature, Murakami is so notoriously reclusive that nobody
knows for sure where in the world he lives, and he has joked
about biting fans who get too close.
But for a short period this spring, the global bestselling
author, 65, will take any and all questions posed to him by
readers, answering those that pique his interest, his publisher
Shinchosha said on Tuesday.
"He likes to engage with readers, but there's so much interest
it's hard for him to interact well. This should be smoother," a
company spokeswoman added.
The company will take questions from Jan 15 to 31, and
Murakami's responses will run until the end of March on a
special page called "Murakami's Place" on the company's website.
Born in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto to schoolteachers,
Murakami's often surreal books have been translated into more
than 50 languages and feature characters bonding through pain.
He has lived in self-imposed exile for years and is often a
harsh critic of his home country.
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His most recent novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of
Pilgrimage", was an instant bestseller that had Japanese fans
queueing to buy it at a midnight release in 2013.
Murakami is known to be a passionate runner, fan of cats and devout
supporter of Tokyo's Yakult Swallows, a perennially cellar-dwelling
baseball team, and questions are likely to touch on these topics as
well as literature, the spokeswoman said.
"We expect there to be some rather strange questions as well," she
added. "Which ones he answers depends on him."
(Editing by Tony Tharakan)
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