Monday, August 3, 2015

06 Greatest Haruki Murakami Book Covers

Haruki Murakami is one of the most prominent and important writers alive at this moment. He is Japaneses but his writing and literary fame reached every corner of the World. Millions of books by Murakami were sold and also translated into more than 50 languages. His memorable works include famous books like Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1994), 1Q84 (2009) and many more. Though he has a worldwide recognition for his novels and short stories, but he is not much rated by many in Japan for his novels. It didn't stop him to write one by one magnificent works of literature.

Like Murakami's books his book covers were also quite surreal and intelligent. The Poster World would dig into 06 different book covers of Murakami published out of Japan.

1. Pinball,1973 (1980)
'Bit Direction less'
The cover of Pinball,1973 is an illustration full of colors and bit motiveless. There is a sense that the characters are disconnected and going nowhere. A cat is sleeping at the floor and a towel is lying lazy at a tool. The persons are looking towards very different angels. The first impression I had after watching this artwork was quite similar of what I saw on Salvador Dali's masterpiece work 'The Persistence of Memory'.    

2. A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
'Let's Find The Sheep'
A detective story about finding a sheep. You saw it correct. Yes, a sheep. This famous novel had some peculiar covers but this one came out as the best one. Face of a sheep, along with a star, beside a forest- that's basically the story of the cover. This is a simple cover but gives an weird and strange impression about everything. Good one!   

3. Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of The World (1985)
'What's on Your Head?'
The cover of this book is surprisingly beautiful. A snowy town on someone's head is always a great idea to cherish on a book cover. Murakami has a tendency of writing highly surreal stuffs but obviously on a realistic pattern. The cover actually enchants the way Murakami writes, so have to say this is a brilliant brilliant cover!    

4. South of The Border, West of The Sun (1992)
'Magical'
This short novel by Murakami has not gone to usual genre of surreal world and characters. It's a romantic story, filled with nostalgia and hefty sighs. The cover of this edition is really fascinating as it probably is showing one face in two different dimensions. This is creating a magical feel and after reading few hours of Murakami you would feel exactly same.  

5. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1994)
'An Evolution'
Very minimalist approach used as the novel tells the story of a guy who's cat ran away from house. Murakami always had fascination with cats and we all know cats are symbol of happiness, comfort and being close. Here the cover of this edition of book is quite interesting, as we can see there are two different types of animals- one cat and another one is bird. A cat is trying to fly and after few attempts it became a bird (or there could be different explanations). The use of red is charming and simply making things alive. Great one! 


6. Kafka on The Shore (2002)
'Kafka Returns'
The story of 'Kafka on The Shore' is about a 15 year old teenager who ran away from his home and about an old man who's main job is to find lost cats. It's obvious that Murakami's writings are highly influenced by great Franz Kafka and by naming one character with the same name actually means a lot to him. The cover is showing a teenager with a sunglass, where in the glass we can see some kind of hills. It's simple, stylish and urban.     

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