Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami dies at 74
Ryu Murakami, the Japanese novelist and film-maker known for "Almost Transparent Blue", "Coin Locker Babies" and "Audition", died on October 17 aged 74, his publisher Gentosha announced.
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Japanese novelist and film-maker Ryu Murakami has died at the age of 74. His publisher Gentosha announced on October 23 that he died at home on October 17, saying it was "deeply and unbearably saddened" by his "premature death".
Japan's literary enfant terrible
Murakami was born in 1952 in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, the son of two teachers. His first novel, "Almost Transparent Blue", written while he was still a student and published in 1976, depicted the hedonistic lives of disillusioned young people. It won the Gunzo prize for new writers and the Akutagawa prize, Japan's most prestigious literary award.
He went on to write more than 40 novels and short-story collections, including "Coin Locker Babies", "In the Miso Soup", "Audition" and "Piercing". Known for frank depictions of violence, drug use and the darker corners of society, he was often called the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Many of his works were adapted for the screen, most famously "Audition", the 1999 film directed by Takashi Miike, and he directed several adaptations himself.
Ryu Murakami was not related to his better-known namesake Haruki Murakami. Writing in 2013, journalist David Pilling said: "If Haruki is the Beatles of Japanese literature, Ryu is its Rolling Stones."
Sources: The Guardian, The Straits Times.
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