Not quite the Nobel, either cash- or prestige-wise (but, hey, Philip Roth did win it (2009) -- albeit six years after ... Jeffrey Eugenides), but the Welt-Literaturpreis has a decent list of winners (Kertész Imre, Jonathan Franzen, the obligatory Amos Oz) and this year they gave it to Murakami Haruki, who got to pick it up a couple of days ago.
With Clemens J. Setz (whose Indigo is just out in English; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) giving the laudatio, and surprise guest Patti Smith playing three songs it sounds like it wasn't bad for an awards-show. Murakami's speech isn't online yet, but The Japan Times, for example, reports that Novelist Murakami hails Hong Kong democracy protesters in German award speech.
Meanwhile in Die Welt Richard Kämmerlings has a long (German) Q & A with Murakami -- fairly interesting, once you get past the ridiculous lede that explains: 'Haruki Murakami doesn't like giving interviews' (which makes everyone involved -- interviewer, interviewee, reader -- sound like a chump).
With Clemens J. Setz (whose Indigo is just out in English; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) giving the laudatio, and surprise guest Patti Smith playing three songs it sounds like it wasn't bad for an awards-show. Murakami's speech isn't online yet, but The Japan Times, for example, reports that Novelist Murakami hails Hong Kong democracy protesters in German award speech.
Meanwhile in Die Welt Richard Kämmerlings has a long (German) Q & A with Murakami -- fairly interesting, once you get past the ridiculous lede that explains: 'Haruki Murakami doesn't like giving interviews' (which makes everyone involved -- interviewer, interviewee, reader -- sound like a chump).