Readers queue for latest Murakami novel
Source: Agencies |
April 17, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EAGER fans waited in Tokyo's drizzling rain yesterday to buy the third volume of Haruki Murakami's best-selling, multi-part novel "1Q84" and learn if its main characters -- former schoolmates now searching for each other -- would be reunited.
Publisher Shinchosha said 500,000 copies would hit bookstores on the first day of sales in Japan and 200,000 more would be printed this month. Television images showed 30 people in line outside one Tokyo bookstore.
"I've been waiting for today. I am dying to know whether the two characters will finally stay together," said Kayoko Takeuchi, a 35-year-old office worker, at Tokyo's Yaesu book center in a business district.
A Shinchosha spokesman said demand for the book was amazing. "We heard that one bookstore sold 100 copies in just one hour," Takashi Machii said.
Like many of Murakami's best-sellers, "1Q84" is a complex and surreal narrative. The story shifts between two characters, a young Japanese man and woman who knew each other as schoolmates but parted. He, an aspiring novelist, and she, a sports instructor and assassin, are now searching for each other.
The second volume of "1Q84" ended with the two close to seeing each other. The novel explores social and emotional issues such as cult religion, violence, family ties and love.
Publisher Shinchosha said 500,000 copies would hit bookstores on the first day of sales in Japan and 200,000 more would be printed this month. Television images showed 30 people in line outside one Tokyo bookstore.
"I've been waiting for today. I am dying to know whether the two characters will finally stay together," said Kayoko Takeuchi, a 35-year-old office worker, at Tokyo's Yaesu book center in a business district.
A Shinchosha spokesman said demand for the book was amazing. "We heard that one bookstore sold 100 copies in just one hour," Takashi Machii said.
Like many of Murakami's best-sellers, "1Q84" is a complex and surreal narrative. The story shifts between two characters, a young Japanese man and woman who knew each other as schoolmates but parted. He, an aspiring novelist, and she, a sports instructor and assassin, are now searching for each other.
The second volume of "1Q84" ended with the two close to seeing each other. The novel explores social and emotional issues such as cult religion, violence, family ties and love.
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