The surreal stories written by famous Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami are read by millions: The peculiarity of the plot developments dampened by an emotional flatness can feel like a comforting refuge from the real world and its extremes.

Murakami says the fantastical content is meaningful by definition. He states that his job is to record what comes from his subconscious, rather than to try and analyze it.

• Haruki Murakami was born in 1949 in Kyoto, and instead of moving into a corporate career, he opened a jazz club in Tokyo.
• A few years later, at a baseball stadium, it occurred to him that he could write a novel. That led to Hear the Wind Sing (1979), which won him a new writers' prize.
• He was more like a  black sheep in the Japanese literary world, partly because his books were too American-like.
• Regardless of his critics, his commercial success continued to grow, hitting a high point in 1987 with Norwegian Wood, which sold 3,5m copies within a year of publication.