Bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami wins Spanish Asturias prize for literature

Bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has won this year’s Princess of Asturias Award for literature, the Spanish foundation that organizes the prizes said Wednesday.

The Princess of Asturias Award jury praised the “uniqueness” of the 72-year-old Kyoto-born writer’s essays, short stories and novels, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies.

The panel highlighted Murakami’s “ability to reconcile Japanese tradition and the legacy of Western culture in an ambitious and innovative narrative.”

It said his work expressed some of the great themes and conflicts of our time, including “loneliness, existential uncertainty, dehumanization in big cities and terrorism.”

The panel lauded his ability to appeal to different generations through different genres, describing him as “one of contemporary literature’s major long-distance runners.”

Murakami has written several dozen books and has also translated works by authors such as Raymond Carver, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, J. D.