Munhakdongne has secured the rights to publish the Korean-language edition of "Kaho," the latest novel by Haruki Murakami, a leading figure in contemporary Japanese literature. The publisher said on the 25th that it had signed a contract with the copyright holder and plans to release the Korean edition in October.
"Kaho" is Murakami's first full-length novel in three years, following "The City and Its Uncertain Walls." Released in Japan on the 3rd of last month, it sold 300,000 copies within four days and topped Japan's Oricon fiction chart for three consecutive weeks.
The new work compiles pieces that Murakami published in four installments in the Japanese literary magazine Shincho between 2024 and 2026. It is his 16th full-length novel. It has drawn particular attention as the first Murakami novel to feature a woman as its sole protagonist.
The novel portrays the strange circumstances that Kaho, a 26-year-old woman who works as a picture-book author, encounters after moving to a village on the outskirts of Tokyo. Kaho becomes entangled with otherworldly beings such as an anteater, a jaguar and a termite queen, and steps forward to resolve a crisis facing her family. Local readers describe it as the easiest to read and most thrilling of his novels, while still preserving the Murakami worldview that moves between the boundaries of reality and unreality. In an interview marking the release, Murakami described it as "a story of growth and recovery that I completed with the resolve to take on a new challenge after recovering from a long illness, a work that holds important meaning for me personally."
Munhakdongne has published more than 20 of Murakami's works, beginning with "1Q84" in 2009 and extending to "The Last Lawn of the Afternoon" this year. An official at Munhakdongne said, "Our solid experience and trust built as a literary publisher, our outstanding editorial and design sensibilities, and our dynamic and timely marketing and branding were key to persuading Murakami's side."
The publishing industry expects the advance for Murakami's new work to reach more than 1 billion won (about $720,000). Multiple major publishers are said to have taken part in the competitive bidding for the Korean rights to "Kaho."
