Zabān-i gharīb-i ghamgīn Persian 2026

A Strange and Sad Language is a collection of essays and reflections by Haruki Murakami, written during his time living in the United States. Moving between travel writing, memoir, personal reflection, and literary prose, the book presents a different side of Murakami: not only as a novelist known for creating imaginative fictional worlds, but also as a writer living abroad and reflecting on language, identity, memory, and everyday life from a distance.

In these essays, Murakami writes about the experience of living in an unfamiliar environment and communicating through another language. For him, a foreign language becomes both a means of discovering new experiences and a reminder of the distance that can emerge between an individual and the surrounding world. From seemingly ordinary moments, he develops reflections on alienation, belonging, migration, memory, culture, music, and the relationship between language and human experience.

The book retains the understated style, subtle humor, and attentive observation familiar from much of Murakami’s writing. Beginning with small details of daily life, he gradually moves toward broader questions of identity and the individual’s place in an unfamiliar world, where the boundaries between reality, memory, and imagination are not always clearly defined.

A Strange and Sad Language offers readers an opportunity to encounter a more personal and reflective side of Murakami. Rather than a conventional collection of short stories, the book is better understood as a series of literary essays, travel reflections, and autobiographical notes, providing insight into Murakami’s experience of living outside Japan and his evolving relationship with language and culture.