Novelist as a Vocation

By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator

Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe

Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller—and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

"Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers"—New York Times Book Review

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Esquire, Vulture, LitHub, New York Observer

Aspiring writers and readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this engaging book from the internationally best-selling author. Haruki Murakami now shares with audiences his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.

Here are the personal details of a life devoted to craft: the initial moment at a Yakult Swallows baseball game, when he suddenly knew he could write a novel; the importance of memory, what he calls a writer’s “mental chest of drawers”; the necessity of loneliness, patience, and his daily running routine; the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career and more.

"What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well."—Haruki Murakami

©2022 Haruki Murakami; translation by Philip Gabriel, Ted Goossen (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Named one of the best books of the year by Esquire, Open the Magazine

"[A] very personal guide to fiction writing peppered with biography and opinion, contains a handful of strange, and strangely revealing, moments...Novelist As a Vocation is a series of intriguing glimpses inside the singular mind of Murakami"—Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian

"Haruki Murakami’s splendid second memoir of sorts...Novelist as a Vocation is an indispensable contribution to understanding Murakami’s astounding mind and method. It shows what makes Murakami run—on the street and on the page."—Robert Allen Papinchak, Los Angeles Review of Books

★ "Murakami has written 14 acclaimed novels, including Hear the Wind Sing, Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, and his best-selling IQ84; dozens of short stories; and over a dozen books of essays and other nonfiction...Novelist is indeed his true vocation, and in this collection of 11 interconnected essays, he tells would-be fiction writers, struggling novelists, and his many devoted readers about the path he’s followed and the ideas and thoughts he’s had in the process...Although this is a concrete and practical guide, as Murakami intended, it is also a fascinating personal and professional memoir."—Marcia Welsh, Library Journal (starred review)

It begins eh…. But finishes well

There are a lot of cliches in the translation, more notably in the beginning. However the point of view is so modest, so self effacing and also so much about the health of creative types- I expect I’ll listen to it twice. Not typical for me.
A wonderful book.

Great book & performance

Very interesting book and a great narrator. Listened to the book in one day. Highly recommend

Very inspiring

A great perspective of what it is needed to become a writer. I loved knowing a little bit about Mr Murakami. It inspired me to try myself hah

Unique autobiography

Very interesting autobiographical perspective on why and how Murakami became a writer. His philosophy of writing. Why he thinks he has been internationally successful. “Couldn’t put it down”.

Food for novelists and everyone else

Murakami covers a breadth of topics in this series of talks on the novelist. and what he has written about is applicable and thought-provoking beyond the vocation he specifies. He's given me a lot to digest. The narrator is not an English native speaker and speaks slowly to articulate carefully, but I thought he captured a lot of Murakami's whimsy and idiosyncracies in the way he spoke.

Excellent

I enjoyed the range of topics and learning about the ways Murakami pushed himself to toward new goals as a writer. I loved his humble tone and was inspired by his stories and thoughts.

Great for aspiring novelists

I found a lot to take with me in this one. I especially enjoyed the advice on physical fitness as a way of increasing stamina for intellectual and creative work.

superb

i cannot recommend this enough if you are a fan of Murakami's novels and short stories. the narration is great and the content itself is incredibly interesting and thoughtful

Haruki Murakami

Very insightful work. His voice is soothing to listen to, and it’s wonderful that he narrated it himself.

Insight

It was nice to put a “voice” per say to his thought process! Thank you Mr Murakami