A new novel by Murakami arrives and marks a turning point for the writer

The book arrives two years after the previous ‘The city and its uncertain walls’ (published in Italian by Einaudi, like all his books), centered on a male protagonist grappling with themes dear to the writer such as love, loss and the boundaries between reality and the subconscious. With ‘The Tale of Kaho’, however, Murakami changes perspective: at the center of the narrative there is a young 26-year-old woman, author of illustrated books, committed to finding a way out of an increasingly bizarre world.

The long genesis of the project

The project, as reported by the Japanese press, has a complex genesis. Initially conceived as a short story, ‘The Tale of Kaho’ was presented for the first time two years ago during a public reading at Waseda University, a university attended by Murakami himself, in dialogue with the writer Mieko Kawakami. The text was then published in June 2024 in the Japanese literary magazine ‘Shincho’ and developed into a series of four episodes, released until March 2026. These include stories with evocative titles such as ‘The Anteater of Musashi-sakai’, ‘Kaho and the Termite Queen’ and ‘Kaho and the Motorcycle Man, and Scarlett Johansson’. The first part, translated into English by Philip Gabriel, appeared in 2024 on the pages of ‘The New Yorker’ magazine. For the volume edition, Murakami reworked and expanded the material, merging the four segments into a unified narrative.

The plot

The story begins with a blind date, during which Kaho – described as a young woman with average appearance and abilities, but with great curiosity – is heard saying: “I have never seen such an ugly person”. Rather than being indignant, the protagonist remains perplexed and decides to investigate the hidden meaning of those words. From that moment, his daily life breaks down, leaving room for a series of alienating events typical of the so-called “Murakamian world”. The Japanese publisher’s promotional teaser explicitly talks about a quest: “I have to find a way out of this world”.

Murakami’s relationship with female characters

According to the publishing house Shinchosha Publishing Co, it is Murakami’s first long novel with an exclusive female protagonist. A significant choice for a writer who, despite having often given space to female figures – even central ones, as in ‘1Q84’ – has over the years been criticized for representations deemed stereotyped or excessively sexualised.

Murakami, one of the most influential names in contemporary Japanese fiction, has repeatedly reflected on this aspect. In an interview with the ‘Paris Review’ in 2004 he defined the women in his novels as “mediums” or “heralds of another world”. More recently, in an interview with the ‘New York Times’, he explained that he approached writing from a female point of view as a natural challenge: “I became her,” he declared, also underlining the more optimistic tone of the new book compared to previous works.

Murakami’s career

Author of global bestsellers such as ‘Norwegian Wood,’ ‘Kafka on the Beach’ and ‘The Bird That Turned the Vines of the World,’ Murakami has built a career spanning nearly half a century, with works translated into some 50 languages. Over the years he has received important international awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize in 2006 and the Princess of Asturias Prize in 2023, and has long been considered among the most authoritative candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature. With ‘The Tale of Kaho’, the writer therefore seems to open a new phase of his narrative research, putting at the center an autonomous female voice dealing with a surreal universe, but, as always happens in his novels, deeply rooted in the anxieties of reality. (by Paolo Martini)