Haruki Murakami Book Covers, and his Upcoming Talk in Berkeley

Stonebridge Press' A Wild Haruki Chase has a great collection of international Haruki Murakami book covers. It's really interesting to see how different they are—the above two, for example, are both for Sputnik Sweetheart, a story about a woman who disappears in Greece. I can't tell what languages they are in, but the covers are both remarkably different (and much more sensual) from the US version and the Japanese version.

Murakami is famous for almost never appearing in person—it's been ages since he did a book tour, and most of us have no idea what the man who created the surreal otherworlds in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore is like. But lucky for us, he'll be holding a rare and highly anticipated reading (in Japanese and English) in Berkeley in October.

Comments

[young]

"Sputnik min elskede" is Danish :) Directly translated it actually means "Sputnik my love".

[kungfupiggy]

On the right bottom cover, isn't that woman Bjork from her Post album cover?

[Lori]

"Minha querida Sputnik" e "Caçando carneiros" are the brazilian portuguese translations.

[mor10]

"Sputnik min elskede" could also be Norwegian. The languages are very similar.

[Aki Hwang]

The last two covers are from the Slavic space of the world.

The one with the guy playing Jazz is a classic example of the covers form the early 90's in Russia.

The last one is a great digital art that was probably made by some talented designer from Ukraine, where local publishers are forced to contract Russian designers, because their own countrymen are all sold out to the better paid projects form western Europe.