Editor's Choice
Audience: Mass readers.
Norwegian Woods is Haruki Murakami's most influential masterpiece and his only realist work to date. Although it is called "100% in love" by the author, it does not fall into the cliché lingering compassion, but meticulously depicts the spiritual resonance of the lonely young group. They resist death with love, express a strong desire to survive in the face of the despair of cruel youth, and desperately escape from the net of death that always hangs over their heads in their own naïve, absurd, cruel, or helpless ways. Regardless of whether it succeeds in the end or not, it shows the vitality of tenacious youth, which can be called "the work on the tip of the pyramid of youth".
Introduction
In 1987, a huge Boeing 747 plane passed through thick rain clouds and was about to land at the airport in Hamburg, Germany, and the cabin began to whisper the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" played by an unknown symphony orchestra. When Watanabe, the 37-year-old hero, hears this melody, he can't help but feel emotional, recalling the past when he was a student 18 years ago. At that time, Watanabe's good friend Kizuki had a childhood sweetheart, Naoko, who suffered a severe mental disorder after Kizuki committed suicide at the age of seventeen. Watanabe is deeply in love with the gentle and beautiful Naoko, but he can only watch her sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of mental pain, and he is in so much pain that he can't extricate himself. At this moment, the lively and cheerful Kobayashi Midori shone into his life like a bright beam. The two girls, one moving and one still, one bright and one dark, and one life and one death, make Watanabe in a dilemma, depressed and hesitant, struggling on the road of self-growth and mutual redemption.
About the Author
Famous Japanese writer and translator.
Born in Kyoto City in 1949. Graduated from the First Faculty of Letters, Waseda University. In 1979, he won the Group Portrait Newcomer Literature Award for his ** work "Song of Listening to the Wind". The main novels** include "The Adventure of Sheep Hunting" (Noma Literary Newcomer Award), "The End of the World and the Cold Strange Land" (Tanizaki Junichiro Award), "Norwegian Wood", "South of the Border, West of the Sun", "Clockwork Bird Chronicle" (Yomiuri Literature Award), "Kafka by the Sea" (World Fantasy Literature Award, "New York Times" Top 10 Best Books of 2005), "1Q84" (Mainichi Publishing Culture Award), "Assassination of the Knight Commander", etc. The short story collection includes "Meet 100% Girls", "God's Children Are Dancing", "Tokyo Strange Tales Collection", "Men Without Women" and so on. The essay collections include "Murakami Radio", "Murakami Asahido" series, "Jazz Group Portraits", etc. The travelogues include "Drums in the Distance", "Rainy and Hot Days", "Border Near" and so on. He has translated the works of many famous British and American literary writers, such as Carver, Salinger, Capote, Fitzgerald, McCullers, etc. He has won numerous international literary awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize in 2006, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Jerusalem Prize in 2009, the Spanish Order of Arts and Letters, the Catalan International Prize in 2011, the World Literature Prize in 2014, the Hans Christian Andersen Prize in 2016, and the Chino del Duka World Prize in 2022.
Wonderful book excerpts
Bhoo, belch, belch, what do you say? Midori said, still with his face buried in my chest.
What kind? ”
Anything goes. It can make me feel happy. ”
You're so cute. ”
midori。She said, "Even by name." ”
Midori is very cute. I repeated.
How much is it? ”
The sea is so cute. ”
Midori lifted her face to look at me. "Your expression is so special. ”
It warms my heart when you say that. I said with a smile.
Say some good things. ”
I like you a lot, midori. ”
How much do you like it? ”
Like a bear that loves spring. ”
Spring bears? Midori raised his face again, "How is the bear in the spring?" ”
When you are walking alone in the spring field, a cute little bear with round and big eyes like velvet walks by on the opposite side. Then he says to you: 'Hello, Miss! Do you want to roll on the ground with me? So you cuddle with the bear and roll around on the alfalfa hills and slopes all day. Isn't that wonderful? ”
It's wonderful. ”
I like you like this yo. ”
Midori hugged me tightly to my chest. "It's amazing. She said, "If you like me so much, you'll listen to me whatever I say, right?" Won't you be angry? ”
Of course. "And, will cherish me forever, right? ”
Of course. I said, stroking her short, soft, boy-like hair, "No problem, don't worry." Everything will go well. ”