Japanese Authors

Japanese author Haruki Murakami (born 1949) has written both novels and short stories. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is probably his most famous work, recommended on Five Books as his ‘grand opus.’ Short stories by Haruki Murakami appear in The Elephant Vanishes, a good book to read first to get a taste of his writing. Murakami’s most recent novel is The City and Its Uncertain Walls (2023), published in 2024 in English. “It’s about a teenage boy whose girlfriend mysteriously disappears.

Here at Five Books, we are always very interested in reading books about Japan—and site data shows that our readers are too. We decided to put together a list of the books by Japanese authors that have on the site, recommended by our expert interviewees. It includes classic texts from Japanese literature, like The Tale of Genji by the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikubu, plus nonfiction, memoir, and contemporary novelists that have found international success.

The book offers a fascinating exploration of societal norms and individuality through the lens of its protagonist who has worked at the same store for 18 years.