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Haruki Murakami, author of Novelist as a Vocation

In NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, the internationally bestselling author and famously private writer Haruki Murakami shares with readers 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; and the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career.

Week of November 6, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of November 6th include Jane Smiley's A DANGEROUS BUSINESS, a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California in which two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls; THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins, a brilliant gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history; NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, an insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller and a unique look at the craft of writing from beloved author Haruki Murakami; Armando Lucas Correa's THE NIGHT TRAVELER, a sweeping novel in which four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope --- from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall; THE DELUGE by Stephen Markley, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity; and the paperback original THE WISHING BRIDGE, a new holiday novel from Viola Shipman that sparkles with the humor and heart that fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Nancy Thayer and Jenny Colgan love most.