Legend has it that on a warm day in Spring 1974 while watching a baseball game Murakami-san had the inspiration to write his first novel, later called Hear the Wind sing.

It won him his first Literary award and is part of The Trilogy of the Rat together with Pinball 1973 and A Wild Sheep Chase .

His career as an writer took off fast and a steady flow of Novels, Short Stories, Articles and Documentaries followed.

The fact that he spent a good part of his life outside Japan, mainly in the US and southern Europe, is maybe the key factor of his growing worldwide success.

The stories and settings are familiar to Westerners and yet there is a distinctive Japanese touch.