What do J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Haruki Murakami’s latest novel 1Q84 have in common?

The buzz surrounding the release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami’s thousand-page novel 1Q84 is being compared to the Harry Potter hype: bookstores staying open until midnight to cope with the demand, bloggers translating bits of the novel on their own and “leaking” them to fans who just can’t wait, and the resounding question: “Does the story end here, or will there be more?”. But similarities likely end at the hype. Murakami's work has been described as “post-modern,” “difficult,” “surreal,” and “noirish.” One of Japan’s foremost authors, his accolades are numerous, including the prestigious Yomiuri Prize, awarded him by Kenzaburo Oe, a Nobel Prize-winning author himself. And what do Kenzaburo Oe and Haruki Murakami have in common? The UA’s own Philip Gabriel, head of the Department of East Asian Studies, translates the work of both legendary Japanese authors. Together with Murakami’s second American translator, Jay Rubin, Gabriel helped tackle this hefty three-part novel which chronicles the interaction of a male author and a female serial killer across dimensions.

“When [Murakami] first appeared in translation, American readers had never encountered this kind of writing before from Japan, and they were surprised and delighted.”

Why does Murakami’s work have a following here in the U.S. that has been called “cult-like?” Dr. Gabriel suggests it is due in part to a familiarity American readers feel when they encounter the work: “Murakami is very conversant with all that makes up American popular culture—jazz, rock, film, literature— and he has a deep grasp of American modern fiction…which helps make it more immediately familiar to American readers. When he first appeared in translation, American readers had never encountered this kind of writing before from Japan, and they were surprised and delighted.”

“The timing of Murakami’s arrival on the scene is also an important factor,” Dr. Gabriel explained. “His work first began to appear in English right at the time when Japanese popular culture was starting to occupy a bigger space in the American imagination.”

Dr. Gabriel has been one of Murakami’s regular translators for about twenty years. His first published translation of Murakami’s was a short story published in 1988. “It usually works out that Jay Rubin, his other English translator, and I take turns translating Murakami’s work,” said Dr. Gabriel. “1Q84 was published in three volumes in Japan—Books 1 and 2 first and then a year later Book 3—and as the first two books of 1Q84 were being published I was told that Jay would be translating them. Since the novel was so long, and the American publisher wanted to have it appear in English as soon as possible, I was brought on board to translate Book 3 while Jay was still working on Book 2.”

UA students will soon be reading 1Q84 in Dr. Gabriel’s literature seminar.

While superstar Haruki Murakami continues to enthrall the literary world across dozens of languages, and the forthcoming English translation of 1Q84 will arrive as a boon to English-speaking audiences,the University of Arizona—and specifically the College of Humanities’ Department of East Asian Studies—is in a position of special privilege to have translator and scholar Philip Gabriel as part of its enormously talented faculty. “I regularly teach a literature seminar that focuses entirely on Murakami’s works,” said Dr. Gabriel. “We read the works in translation, and the next time I teach the class we will finish by reading 1Q84. The work is a culmination of themes Murakami has been working on for years and will be a good way to wrap up the class.”