Haruki Murakami is one of those incredible success stories. He has become the most widely-read Japanese novelist of his generation in the West and has also brought writers like Raymond Carver and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Japanese readers, by translating their works. Though both his parents taught Japanese literature, he was more influenced by the Western canon and he used to run a jazz bar before he ventured into writing.
When Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki, his latest book, was released in Japan, it sold more than a million copies in the first week, becoming the fastest selling book on Amazon in Japan. The story follows Tsukuru Tazaki, who tries to reconnect with four childhood friends, all of whom had a colour as part of their surnames and ostracized Tazaki in the past. In Murakami’s signature style, you’ll find the typical themes of alienation, fragility and minimalist prose, with a tinge of magical realism.
It’s hard to believe that Stephen King is still writing, and has been doing so for the past four decades – our generation grew up with his horror books as kids but he is still going strong. At the beginning of his career in the 1970s, publishers used to try to limit authors to one book a year so King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which he said was also to make sense out of his career and figure out whether his success was due to talent or luck. In the end, he never knew because he was found out too early to know.
Revival is his 55th book and you’re find that while King is still the master storyteller, this one, a modern-day Frankenstein story about a reverend turned mad scientist, might be a little less terrifying – here, I’m thinking of “The Shining” or “Misery” or perhaps it just means that there is an age for horror.
Paulo Coelho is one of those authors who proves that sometimes, you have just one big break it’s all downhill from there. His 1988 book, the Alchemist, was a moving allegory that traced the journey of an Andalusian shepherd to Egypt, on a treasure hunt to follow his dreams. The most widely translated book in history, selling more than 65 million copies in 56 different languages, it set a Guiness World record. Since then, he has written one unremarkable book every two years, the latest being Adultery, about a woman who has it all - she’s a successful journalist with a wealthy husband and family - she feels something is missing from her life, so she decides to pursue a high school boyfriend. Somewhat trivial and tedious, this book, unlike The Alchemist isn’t an inspiring, magical tale of self-actualization but one that is full of platitudes and lack insight on a complex subject.
Elife Shafak is my new heroine. Turkish author, columnist and academic, she publishes fiction and non-fiction, in Turkish and English, and merges Eastern and Western storytelling traditions. Filled with dark humour and mysticism, her stories on women, immigrants, minorities, youth and subcultures reveal her interest in history, philosophy, Sufism and cultural politics. She can be considered today’s modern writer of the Orient. She wrote her first novel in 1998, Pinhan (The Hidden), which was awarded the Rumi Prize, and after her fourth novel was written in English, the rest followed. Her most recent, The Architect’s Apprentice, revolves around architect Mimar Sinan, Turkey’s Michelangelo who has built more than 90 mosques, 50 schools, 20 mausoleums, 36 palaces and 48 hammams in his lifetime, as well as his fictional 12-year old Indian apprentice. Spanning a 99-year history of 16th century Istanbul, this is the most ambitious of her novels yet.
Even though Tom Clancy passed away a couple of years ago, he is still releasing his political thrillers, in spirit. Best know for his military and espionage storylines set after the Cold War, you’ll recognise many of his bestselling novels in films such as Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989) and The Sum of All Fears (1991). The latest book to be released in his name, co-authored by Mark Greaney is Full Force and Effect, which has to do with a dictator in North Korea, nuclear missile threats to the US and a veteran CIA officer murdered in Ho Chi Minh City. In the research for this novel, the author travelled to more than 15 countries and had to train with military and law-enforcement officials to learn to use firearms and the result is a story of political intrigue that would have made Clancy proud.
