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Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami

Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami

by Denis Johnson (Contributor), Denis Johnson (Contributor), Haruki Murakami (Contributor), Haruki Murakami (Introduction), Haruki Murakami (Contributor), Haruki Murakami (Introduction), Raymond Carver (Contributor), Russell Banks (Contributor), Paul Theroux (Contributor)

  • New

    Paperback 2006

    $11.37

  • Used

    Hardcover 2004

    $10.26
Synopsis

What will you get for your birthday this year? A chance to see into the future? Or a reminder of an imperfect past? In this enviable gathering, Haruki Murakami has chosen for his party some of the very best short story writers of recent years, each with their own birthday experiences, each story a snapshot of life on a single day. Including stories by Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Claire Keegan, Andrea Lee, Daniel Lyons, Lynda Sexson, Paul Theroux, William Trevor and Haruki Murakami, this anthology captures a range of emotions evoked by advancing age and the passing of time, from events fondly recalled to the impact of appalling tragedy. Previously published in a Japanese translation by Haruki Murakami, this English edition contains a specially written introduction.

$11.37

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14 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 224
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: Vintage
Published: 01 Jun 2006
ISBN 10: 0099481553
ISBN 13: 9780099481553
Book Overview: Selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami. A collection of twelve birthday stories from some of the most distinguished writers of western literature.

Media Reviews
The perfect year-round present * Time Out *
Brilliant...Murakami introduces all these stories with grace and lightness of touch * Sunday Herald *
A memorable collection. Voices and settings as diverse as the authors, but they are all concerned with the arbitrary yet immensely significant way in which we mark the passing of our lives * Observer *
The quality of storytelling is exemplary... There's darkness enough here for the hardiest of cynics, but enough heart to charm * Word *
Author Bio
In 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, which turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, were translated into many languages, including English, and the door was thrown wide open to Murakami's unique and addictive fictional universe. Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages a day, after which he runs ten kilometres (he began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races), works on translations, and then reads, listens to records and cooks. His passions colour his non-fiction output, from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to Absolutely On Music, and they also seep into his novels and short stories, providing quotidian moments in his otherwise freewheeling flights of imaginative inquiry. In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Men Without Women, his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring Murakami's place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.