Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’ coming to America this year

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American fans of Japanese author Haruki Murakami can celebrate -- his next novel is coming to American bookshelves in the fall.

The much-anticipated ‘1Q84’ was released in Japan in 2009 in two 500-plus-page volumes. The book’s plot was kept largely under wraps, causing a flurry of advance orders and quickly launching it to the top of the Japanese bestseller lists.

The English-language translation will be published in the U.S. by Knopf on Oct. 25 as a single volume, GalleyCat reports.

Murakami’s works, such as ‘Kafka on the Shore’ and ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,’ have earned him an avid following of readers who crave smart and challenging literature. They’ve been waiting some time for a new novel from the writer, who some consider among the world’s best. It’s been close to four years since his most recent novel, ‘After Dark,’ was published in the U.S.; a short memoir, ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ came out a year later. Both were L.A. Times bestsellers.

‘1Q84’ is said to be a pun on George Orwell’s ‘1984’ -- the Japanese word for ‘Q,’ apparently, being a homonym for the number 9.

-- Carolyn Kellogg