Haruki Murakami to Publish a New Memoir This Fall

Beloved Japanese author Haruki Murakami will publish a new memoir this fall. Abandoning a Cat: A Personal Story will be published by Knopf, and it will be translated into English by Philip Gabriel. The memoir expands upon an essay published by Murakami in The New Yorker from 2019 called “Abandoning a Cat.”

The memoir will focus on what it means to be a father, exploring the relationship between the author and his own dad. It’s further contextualized by the post-World War II era in Japan, and Murakami promises a signature cat story, too.

Abandoning a Cat clocks in at only 80 pages, and it is not Murakami’s first foray into personal nonfiction. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is reflective work about the intersections of Murakami’s passions for running and writing, while the 2022 book Novelist as a Vocation explores his thoughts on being a writer.