Love triangles have a special ability to captivate readers, whether set in ancient history, 1960s Japan or a sci-fi future. Here are five of the best
January 2024
This month's best paperbacks
This month’s best paperbacks: Haruki Murakami, Sophie Mackintosh and more
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some excellent new paperbacks, from a virtuoso debut novel to the science of how we feel
November 2023
Sputnik Sweetheart review – Haruki Murakami’s love triangle staged in style
The enigmatic 1999 novel about three entwined lives is sleekly adapted by Bryony Lavery and sharply directed by Melly Still
October 2023
Chinese author Can Xue favourite to win 2023 Nobel prize in literature
Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie are also among those highly tipped for the prize, announced on Thursday
July 2023
Where to start with
Where to start with: Haruki Murakami
The acclaimed Japanese author’s deceptively simple writing combines fantasy and reality in stories of everything from missing cats to dystopian histories via fantasy thrillers and meditations on love. Then he told us about running
June 2023
Best culture of 2023 so far
The best films of 2023 so far
Cate Blanchett’s unravelling conductor, Spielberg’s semi-memoir and the stop-motion tale of a shell wearing shoes all feature in the pick of the year released in the UK to date
Dream logic coexists with the crushingly mundane in composer Pierre Földes’s adult animation, a series of interlinked stories set in the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese earthquake
March 2023
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman review – Murakami’s surreal tales around a Tokyo earthquake
The seductively quirky sad-serious tone of the author is evident as a constellation of characters try and save the city – including a lost cat and a giant talkative frog
November 2022
Book of the day
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami review – lessons in simplicity
The Japanese writer lets readers inside his own head in an insightful collection of essays on his work and methods
Novelist As a Vocation by Haruki Murakami review – the secrets behind the literary phenomenon
The celebrated novelist offers insights into his ways of working, his direct style and the moments that shaped him in this intriguing book on writing
‘I want to open a window in their souls’: Haruki Murakami on the power of writing simply
The master storyteller on finding a voice, creative originality and why he has never suffered from writer’s block
February 2022
The Guardian view on Jack Reacher: enduring appeal
Editorial: A new TV series shows the laconic hero dispatch the bad guys with balletic ease. If only real life were like that
December 2021
Top US films 2021
The 50 best films of 2021 in the US, No 4: Drive My Car
Best films of 2021
The 50 best films of 2021 in the UK, No 4: Drive My Car
November 2021
Down the rabbit hole
What connects Drive My Car to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood?
From Haruki Murakami to Paul Thomas Anderson via The Big Sleep, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest film inspires a trip down the rabbit hole
July 2021
Drive My Car review – mysterious Murakami tale of erotic and creative secrets
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi reaches a new grandeur with this engrossing adaptation about a theatre director grappling with Chekhov and his wife’s infidelity
April 2021
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – crowd-pleaser in cruise control
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami review – meditations on ageing and memory
March 2021
Books blog
Haruki Murakami's new T-shirt line proves it: he's no recluse
The notoriously private author’s latest project, a stylish clothing collaboration with Uniqlo, marks the latest step in his opening up to the world
June 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 books about Tokyo
From quiet stories of domestic life to accounts of horrific crime, these books introduce the reader to a vast, almost unknowable city
