7.6 /10 1 Votes
Editor Haruki Murakami Pages 334 (UK)
352 (U.S.) Country Japan | 3.8/5 Goodreads Language Japanese Originally published 2006 Genre Short story collection Translators Philip Gabriel, Jay Rubin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title めくらやなぎと眠る女
Mekurayanagi to nemuru onna Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) ISBN 1-84343-269-2 (UK)
1-4000-4461-8 (U.S.) Awards Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Kiriyama Prize Similar Works by Haruki Murakami, Short Stories | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2015 reading challenge book 30 blind willow sleeping woman by haruki murakami
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (めくらやなぎと眠る女, Mekurayanagi to nemuru onna) is a collection of 24 short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Contents
The stories contained in the book were written between 1980 and 2005, and published in Japan in various magazines then collections. The contents of this compilation was selected by Murakami and first published in English translation in 2006 (its Japanese counterpart was released later in 2009). Around half the stories were translated by Philip Gabriel with the other half being translated by Jay Rubin. In this collection, the stories alternate between the two translators for the most part.
Murakami considers this to be his first real English-language collection of short stories since The Elephant Vanishes (1993) and considers after the quake (2000) to be more akin to a concept album, as its stories were designed to produce a cumulative effect.
In the introductory notes to the English-language edition of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Murakami declares, "I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden." This analogy serves to give the reader some idea of what awaits.
Contents
Many of the stories in the collection have been published previously in Japanese periodicals (not listed here), then translated in literary magazines (mentioned below), although some have been revised for Blind Willow. The stories are listed below in the order in which they appear in the book. Many of the stories are translated by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin.