Murakami Haruki is a Japanese novelist and literary translator. He was born in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City in Kyoto Prefecture on January 12, 1949 and grew up in Nishinomiya and Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture. While attending Waseda University, he owned a jazz cafe. He married his wife, Yoko, who also attended Waseda in 1971. The couple have no children by their own choice.

He debuted in 1979 with his novel "Hear the Wind Song" (Kaze no Uta wo Kike). His debut novel earned him the Group Newcomer Literature Award. His work, "Norwegian Forest" (Norway no Mori), released in 1987, became a hit, selling over 10 million copies as of 2009. This work is credited with triggering the "Murakami Haruki boom". Other major works of his include "A Wild Sheep Chase" (Hitsuji wo Meguru Boken), "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (Sekai no Owari to Hado-boirudo Wandarando), "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" (Nejimakidori Kuronikuru), "Kafka on the Shore" (Umibe no Kafuka) and "1Q84".

In 1991, he was invited to be a visiting researcher at Princeton University and moved to the United States for four years before returning to Japan in June of 1995.

Since 2003, Murakami has published a number of new translations of American literature. Some of those titles that he translated include Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby", and Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Murakami is a popular author even outside of Japan. Shibata Motoyuki, a Japanese translator, described Murakami as one of the most influential writers in modern America. In 2006, he became the first Asian winner of the Franz Kafka Award. Since then, he has also been regarded as the most promising Nobel Prize in Literature winner among Japanese writers. He also publishes nonfiction, travelogues, and essays. Edit Biography