Murakami on new book: 'Time came for rewrite' of 1980 story

'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' is Japanese author's first novel in six years

20230410 Haruki Murakami

Japanese author Haruki Murakami felt the time had come to transform his original short story into a full-length novel. © Kenji Sugano/Shinchosha Publishing

MINORU NAKANO, Nikkei senior staff writer

TOKYO -- Haruki Murakami, 74, is releasing his first full-length novel in six years on Thursday. "The City and Its Uncertain Walls," published by Shinchosha Publishing, is a radically revised version of a novella that was printed in a magazine in 1980 but never previously released as a book.

"I now have the ability to write novels exactly as I want them to be," Murakami told Nikkei in a recent interview. "The time has come for me to rewrite that story."

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