TOKYO: Only 1,100 lucky audience members were there to hear the yet-to-be published short story “Kaho,” read aloud by bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami himself.
The reading took place at a Friday night book event called “The Owl Reads in Spring” — a fundraiser for the Waseda International House of Literature library at Murakami’s alma mater in Tokyo, also featuring award-winning author Mieko Kawakami.
“It’s freshly made, only about 10 days ago,” Murakami told the audience, adding that he wrote it for the event. The last Murakami short released was “First Person Singular,” more than three years ago. His prolific literary work also includes essays, non-fiction and translation.
Murakami, relaxed and casually dressed in sneakers, jeans and a dark jacket, said writing a story for recitation was not easy.
“It’s actually quite hard to write a new story for reciting,” Murakami said. “Its content and style have to fit recitation, and it has to be relatively short.” The story still came out too long, he said, and read it in two parts during the event at Waseda University.
Journalists at the event were allowed to report story names, but not their content.
