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Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami review – an excellent introduction to an important novelist

Written By Unknown on Tuesday, August 4, 2015 | 1:44 AM

Murakami may not be a fan of his first two books but both hint at the qualities that typify his work

The arrival of a new novel by Haruki Murakami tends to be greeted by his fans with cult-like devotion. Since the publication of Norwegian Wood in 1987, Murakami has held a unique place in the contemporary literary canon: a Japanese writer steeped in American literature, and arguably the most successful contemporary Japanese novelist in translation, he’s attracted a loyal army of readers during the course of his 30-year career. There is, then, a great deal of excitement surrounding the publication of his first two novels – Hear the Wind Sing (1979) and Pinball, 1973 (1980) – widely available in English translation for the first time.