Haruki Murakami (Penguin)

Haruki Murakami is beyond any doubt Japan’s most internationally successful writer, with novels like Norwegian Wood and 1Q84 stunning critics and audiences alike. However, his first two novels Hear The Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 were not published in English outside Japan, until now that is. Wind/Pinball combines the two novels in one edition, and both follow the narrator and his friend, known only as the Rat. Wind sees the narrator try to woo a girl with nine fingers as he hangs out in bars, while Pinball sees the narrator move to Tokyo as a translator. The narrator yearns for his life back home, symbolised by a certain model of pinball machine, which he then tries to find in his new life. Both are honest and witty novels, colourfully written as ever, and come highly recommended to Murakami fans.

words LUKE OWAIN BOULT

Price: £9.99. Info: www.penguin.co.uk