Madrid. The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami was awarded the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, in a decision made unanimously by the jury and which recognizes the work and career of an author who in recent years has been one of the most regular contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the words of the jury, Murakami He is a great long-distance runner in contemporary literature.
who has addressed with his lyrics some of the great issues of today’s society, such as the dehumanization of big cities (or) loneliness and existential uncertainty
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The members of the jury, presided over by the director of the Royal Academy of Language, Santiago Munoz Machado, came mainly from the world of letters and the academy, including Gonzalo Celorio Blasco, Jesús García Calero, José Luis García There are many different types of characters in the film, but the most common ones are the ones that are characters from the movies.
In your minutes, you justify your decision in the uniqueness of its literature, its universal scope, its ability to reconcile Japanese tradition and the legacy of Western culture in an ambitious and innovative narrative, which has been able to express some of the great themes and conflicts of our time: loneliness, existential uncertainty, dehumanization in big cities, terrorism, but also body care or one’s own reflection on creative work. His voice, expressed in different genres, has reached very different generations. Haruki Murakami is a great long-distance runner in contemporary literature.
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Murakami’s candidacy was made by María Sheila Cremaschi, director for Spain of the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, who was also awarded the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan, on January 12, 1949. He graduated in literature from Waseda University and from a very young age showed his interest in crime novels, in addition to running a jazz club during the beginning of his literary career, which made music a decisive element that runs through all his work.
Converted into a cult author and translated into more than 40 languages, Murakami has been influenced by some of the great novelists in literature, whom he himself has recognized as his references, such as Dostoevsky, Dickens or Truman Capote.
▲ From a very young age, Murakami showed his interest in crime novels; In addition, during the beginning of his literary career he ran a jazz club, which made music a decisive element that runs through all of his work.Photo courtesy Tusquets
Among the arguments that were given in the candidacy was that His literature, intimate, sometimes surreal and with traits of implausibility and humor, does not avoid, but rather confronts the most serious social problems and the fight for the defense of essential human values, insisting on the desire for love and the feeling of loneliness of his characters, who survive between the real and the dreamlike, between constant certainty and uncertainty
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his first novel, Kaze no uta wo kike (1979) (listen to the song of the wind, 2015), was awarded the Gunzou Literature Prize for New Writers and gave rise to her Rat Trilogy. He is also the author of The end of the world and a ruthless wonderland, Dance Dance Dance, South of the border, west of the sun and collections of stories the elephant disappears, After the earthquake, Blind willow, sleeping woman, men without women y First person of singular.
Spanish translation of his most recent novel
His latest novels include 1Q84, The years of pilgrimage of the boy without color, The death of the commander y The city and its uncertain wallsthe most recent novel that will be published in Spanish in the spring of 2024, as reported yesterday by the Tusquets Editores label in a statement.
The editorial pointed out that Murakami is the creator of a literary universe unique and unmistakable
and affirmed that the sales of all his works in the Spanish language exceed 4 million copies.
Murakami has also been a rigorous translator of authors such as Raymond Carver, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, JD Salinger, and John Irving. Among the most important prizes he has received are the World Fantasy Prize (United States, 2006), the Franz Kafka (Czech Republic, 2006), the Jerusalem Prize (Israel, 2009) and the Hans Christian Andersen for Literature (Denmark, 2016). ).
(With information from Europa Press)