Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 arrives to New York
The taxi’s radio was turned to a Classical FM broadcast. Janacek’s Sinfonietta – probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic….(Quote: “1Q84” by Haruki Murakami)
Cover of 1Q84 English version
An English translation of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel “1Q84” hit New York bookstore shelves two years after the best-selling book was released in Japanese, with some shops holding events to celebrate the book’s arrival and opening their doors at midnight for enthusiastic fans.
Cover of 1Q84 Japanese version
In Japan, the novel quickly became a sensation, with its first printing selling out the day it was released, and reaching sales of one million within a month.
At an event on Monday evening at Three Lives & Company in Greenwich Village, about 70 people came to be the first ones to buy the book, according to store manager Toby Cox.
Meanwhile Brooklyn’s Word bookstore held a ”read-a-thon” where fans were encouraged to share their favorite passages from past Murakami books while counting down to the release at midnight.
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Haruki Murakami
Originally three volumes in Japanese, the English translation by Harvard professor Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel of Arizona University was published by Random House, Inc. in a 944-page single volume.
Readers were looking forward to starting the new book and seeing how it related to Murakami’s past works as well as other literature. Customer reviwes on Amazon.com
The story, set in Tokyo in 1984, takes place over the course of one year. As reality begins to unravel, the lives of the two main characters, Aomame, a hired killer, and Tengo, a writer, begin to converge.
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