MURAKAMI, HARUKI (1949)
What I talk about when I talk about running. A memoir.


Harvill Secker, London. 2008. First Edition. Seventh Printing. Hardcover. Red board with gilt title to spine. With original price unclipped dustjacket. With black endpapers. 179 pages. 13,75 x 20,5 x 2 cm. 286 gr. ISBN-13 978-1-846-55220-5. Original title 'Hashiru koto ni tsuite kataru toki ni boku no kataru koto' (2007). Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. Cover illustration Jody Barton. Design Suzanne Dean. Author photograph Marion Ettlinger.


In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and on his writing.


Equal parts travelogue, training log and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and settings ranging from Tokyo's Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston, among yooung women who outpaced him. Through this marvellous lensof sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insight: the eureka moment when he deceided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty of seeing his race times improve and the fall back.


By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and relevatory, both for fans of this masterful writer and for the vast number of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.


A near fine copy. As New.



BOOKNUMBER: 13118