ḥerfeh-ye romān-nevīs Persian 2025

This book is a collection of essays in which Haruki Murakami reflects on his personal path to becoming a writer, his views on novel writing, and his professional experiences. The opening chapter, titled “Do Novelists Have Broad Minds?”, sets the tone, and one of the book’s key essays, “How I Became a Novelist,” offers an autobiographical account of Murakami’s entry into the world of literature.

Rather than serving as a structured instructional manual, the book is a personal meditation on life, writing habits, intellectual independence, and the writer’s relationship with society. In this work, Murakami presents his distinctive—and at times unconventional—perspectives on writing.

Critical reception has been mixed. Some critics have described the book as candid, honest, and illuminating in its portrayal of Murakami’s mindset and working methods, while others have criticized its loose structure and what they see as simplistic or eccentric advice. Nevertheless, the book is considered a noteworthy read for fans of Murakami’s work and for those interested in the creative process of writing.

The book also enjoyed commercial success; for example, Kinokuniya bookstores reportedly purchased around 90% of the first print run.

It can be said that Haruki Murakami is one of the most controversial and enigmatic figures in world literature over the past few decades. To a large number of readers and serious literary critics worldwide, his novels and short stories are unparalleled masterpieces. At the same time, some radical and intellectually critical readers and critics view this renowned Japanese author as part of a postmodern cultural current that promotes works which appear significant on the surface but lack genuine literary value. Despite these debates, Murakami’s influence on literary history has been so substantial that one can legitimately speak of a distinct “Murakami style.”

Novelist as a Vocation is Murakami’s own account of his approach to writing. It presents a comprehensive continuum that encompasses the choice of subjects, the creation and development of characters, ways of engaging with them, narrative construction, publication, and even the manner in which translations of his works are presented in different languages. Novelist as a Vocation is therefore not only a guide to writing in Murakami’s style, but also a reflection on how to live and exist in the world as an important and influential writer—and we are fortunate that the author himself has chosen to share this perspective with us.