Харуки Мураками: First Person Singular: Stories

Dance Dance Dance

The Elephant Vanishes

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Kafka on the Shore

Killing Commendatore

Norwegian Wood

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Sputnik Sweetheart

The Strange Library

A Wild Sheep Chase

Wind/Pinball

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Absolutely on Music

(with Seiji Ozawa)

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2020 by Haruki Murakami

English-language translation copyright © 2021 by Haruki Murakami

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in Japan as Ichininsho Tansu by Bungei Shunju Ltd., Tokyo, in 2020. Copyright © 2020 by Haruki Murakami.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Photograph on this page by Ulana Switucha / Alamy

Some stories first appeared in the following publications: “Cream” first appeared in The New Yorker (January 2019), “On a Stone Pillow” first appeared in Freeman’s (October 2020), “Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova” first appeared in Granta (August 2019), “With the Beatles” first appeared in The New Yorker (February 2020), and “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey” first appeared in The New Yorker (June 2020).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Murakami, Haruki, [date] author. | Gabriel, Philip, [date] translator.

Title: The first person singular : stories / Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.

Other titles: Ichininsho Tansu. English

Description: First edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. | “This is a Borzoi book”

Identifiers: LCCN 2020028991 | ISBN 9780593318072 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593318089 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PL856.U673 A2 2021 | DDC 895.63/5—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2020028991

Ebook ISBN 9780593318089

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover photograph by Brent Landreth / Alamy

Cover design by Chip Kidd

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John Scott played outfield for the Swallows from 1979 to 1981. He once hit four home runs in a double header. Twice he won the Diamond Glove Award, Japan’s equivalent of the Gold Glove.

Mike Reinbach played outfield for the Hanshin Tigers from 1976 to 1980. Along with Hal Breeden he was one of their cleanup hitters. He was a gutsy player who was very popular with fans.

Richard Alan Scheinblum played outfield for the Hiroshima Carp from 1975 to 1976. He also played in an All Star game in the Major Leagues. His name was shortened to “Shane” in Japan. “I don’t mind,” he commented. “Though I can’t ride a horse.”