NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller—and a
unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84 Norwegian
Wood and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Murakami is like a magician who explains
what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers
—New York Times Book ReviewA MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Esquire Vulture LitHub New York
ObserverAspiring writers and readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets
his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this engaging
book from the internationally best-selling author. Haruki Murakami now shares with readers his
thoughts on the role of the novel in our society his own origins as a writer and his musings
on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers artists and musicians.Here are the
personal details of a life devoted to craft: the initial moment at a Yakult Swallows baseball
game when he suddenly knew he could write a novel the importance of memory what he calls a
writer’s mental chest of drawers” the necessity of loneliness patience and his daily running
routine the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career and more. What I want to say is
that in a certain sense while the novelist is creating a novel he is simultaneously being
created by the novel as well. —Haruki Murakami
