An English translation of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's latest novel "Killing Commendatore" ("Kishidancho Goroshi" in Japanese) hit the shelves in the United States on Tuesday.
The novel became the 69-year-old Murakami's first multivolume novel in seven years when the original was put on sale in Japan in February 2017, following "1Q84" in 2009-2010.
In the interim, the world-renowned Japanese writer released other new work including the novel "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage," which achieved bestseller status in English translation in 2014, as well as a collection of short stories and a book of conversations with Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa.
The latest novel, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen, was published by Knopf in the United States.
"I am just obsessed with his style," said Joe Kelly, a 24-year-old Murakami enthusiast, after buying a copy at a bookstore in New York. "I have read everything that he has written, nonfiction included, articles and stuff like that, everything."
Often named by bookmakers among the favorites to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Murakami last month asked to be withdrawn from a list of candidates for a new prize set up in replacement of the postponed Nobel prize.
Murakami debuted with a novel titled "Hear the Wind Sing" in 1979, which won him the Gunzo literature prize for up-and-coming writers.
"Norwegian Wood," a 1987 novel named after a Beatles song, catapulted Murakami to fame in Japan and around the world. It tells of a college student's bittersweet coming of age in Tokyo in the 1960s.
His works have been translated into many languages and he has won several literary prizes, such as the Franz Kafka Prize in 2006, the Jerusalem Prize in 2009, and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award for 2016.
More on Haruki Murakami:
Haruki Murakami's latest book given "indecent" rating in H.K.
Translation more hobby than work for novelist Murakami
Author Murakami goes on-air, says he learned writing from music
