Want to discuss cats or novels? Haruki Murakami will answer

TOKYO — If you are troubled, lost in life or just feel like discussing cats and Japanese baseball, visit Mr Murakami’s Place online. Starting today (Jan 15), author Haruki Murakami will be taking questions and responding as best as he can for the next two weeks.

A best-selling novelist and perennial candidate for a Nobel Prize in literature, Murakami is notoriously publicity-shy. But he wants some virtual interaction with his readers, says his publisher Shinchosha.

Murakami’s latest ask-him-anything session starts today at Murakami-san no Tokoro, or Mr Murakami’s Place — a website set up by Shinchosha Publishing.

“Waiting for questions, consultations, etc.,” says a handwritten message from Murakami on the site.

A cat lover and a big fan of the underdog Japanese baseball team the Yakult Swallows, Murakami personally suggested those topics, along with likes and dislikes about places, according to the publisher.

But readers can post any questions or “little somethings” they want to tell Murakami during the sessions that run through Jan 31, and Murakami is promising to try to answer as many of them as possible. Questions to Murakami, an avid runner, could also touch on running and his novels.

Shinchosha says Murakami will chose and respond to the questions himself, mostly in Japanese but possibly also in English or other languages, as in the past: Since the 1990s, Murakami has held several similar message exchanges with his readers and fans, some of which have been published in books. The most recent was in 2006.

Murakami’s protagonists are often troubled young men seeking their self-identity in grim, dark or fantastical settings. But the novelist’s sense of humour is apparent in his essays and short stories.

“Laughter can open up people’s hearts, while sorrow is introverted,” he said in a rare speaking engagement in his hometown of Kyoto in 2013.

Murakami, 65, began writing while running a jazz bar in Tokyo after finishing university. His 1987 romantic novel Norwegian Wood was his first best-seller, establishing him as a young literary star. Recent best-sellers include 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

While seeking privacy, Murakami has spoken out on various issues, especially nuclear energy and global peace.

In a 1997 response to a question, published in the book Let’s Ask Mr Murakami, the author said he wants to present himself as a “natural, real-size person” instead of having just a virtual public image. “I’d rather speak up about what I honestly believe in,” he said. AP