Norwegian Wood Vol. 2

In September 1987, it was published in a two-part book as a work written by Kodansha. It was converted into a paperback as a kodansha bunko in April 1991, and a revised edition of the Bunko was published in September 2004 (a Japanese book with an afterglow, but it is not published in the paperback version).

The writing took place in Greece, Sicily and Rome. For this reason, together with "Dance Dance Dance" which he continued to write in London, "Something like the shadow of a foreign country is fateful", "a novel written to be written as a result", "If it had been written in Japan, it would not have been so vertically entered" Murakami wrote in "Far Drum". On March 7, 1987, he wrote the first draft late at night without a 17-hour break from early in the morning. I only wrote in the diary immediately after "very good". On March 26th, the second draft was completed. All handwritten with a ballpoint pen.

Against the background of the student movement, the main character "I" and the friend's lover "Naoko" are skillfully drawn various adolescent conflicts, human patterns, love affairs, feelings of loss, etc., and it is read very widely. As described later, the first volume was the top of the number of copies of the Japanese novel until it was overtaken by Kyoichi KATAYAMA's "In the Center of the World: Love."

The 'private university in Tokyo' where the main character attends is based, Murakami's alma mater Waseda University, and 'the dormitory where the main character was in' is modeled after the Warkei Juku, which was in the dormitory where the main character was in. This work is considered to be an 'autobiographical novel' based on Murakami's actual experience, but he himself denies this.

The original work was '螢' (the first issue of the January issue of "Chuo Koron") in the short story. In addition, the short story "The Woman Who Sleeps" is also a series that comes together in this work, but unlike '螢,' there is no direct relationship in the story with this work.

In 1989, an English translation of Alfred Barnbaum's translation, Norwegian Wood, was published. However, his English translation was later out of print, and is now available in print by Jay Rubin. It has been translated into English-speaking countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, as well as in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. It was also translated into Norwegian.