Works of Haruki Murakami: The Firefly

Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-12-01
Features: In 1987, Haruki Murakami published what you are familiar with—Norwegian Wood—but that was just the 'flow'; its 'source' is the one in this book—The Fireflies published in 1983. In this collection of five short stories, the brilliant dance skills in The Dancing Little People will captivate you, and the helplessness of life in Blind Willow and Sleeping Girl will make you sigh gently, but The Fireflies is undoubtedly the one you should read first—to give you more to know about Norwegian Wood. In the world of Murakami's novels and their artistic charm, Haruki Murakami truly stands out as an extraordinary figure—a literary superstar. In just a dozen years, his works became wildly popular across Japan. Publishers released dedicated anthologies, magazines published special issues, and bookstores set up dedicated sections. Every book he published sold tens of thousands to over a million copies. Among them, the 1987 Norwegian Wood (volumes 1 and 2) sold over 7 million copies (statistics as of 1996). For pure literary fiction, this is by no means an ordinary number. In Japan's previous records of novel sales, Shiba Ryōtarō's historical novel Xiang Yu and Liu Bang had the highest sales of 2.3 million copies; next was Watase Tatsuhiko's popular fiction Metamorphosis, with 1.47 million copies. Norwegian Wood far surpassed this record.