Which Haruki Murakami novel won the Tanizaki Prize in 1985?

Which Haruki Murakami novel won the Tanizaki Prize in 1985? Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World won it.

Murakami’s 1985 novel alternates between two connected narratives. “Hard-Boiled Wonderland” combines cryptography, noir, and science fiction, while “The End of the World” presents a strange walled city where residents surrender their shadows and memories. The contrast gives the book its dreamlike, philosophical quality.

The Tanizaki Prize is a major Japanese literary award named after novelist Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. Murakami received it in 1985, the same year the novel was published in Japan. Its English translation by Alfred Birnbaum appeared in 1991; Jay Rubin produced a later translation.

The book is often confused with Murakami’s better-known later novels Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Those were not the 1985 Tanizaki Prize winner. Norwegian Wood was published in 1987 and also came later.