Literary Rendez-vous: Haruki Murakami - Portrayal of Women in Norwegian Wood

Literary Rendez-vous offers books, conversations, and quiet evenings in pleasant company. This time, the meeting is dedicated to one of the most celebrated novels by Japanese writer and translator Haruki Murakami.

Norwegian Wood is a story of love, grief, and coming of age set at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Narrator Toru Watanabe returns to his youth, marked by loss and relationships, yet it is the female characters - Naoko, Midori, and Reiko - who leave the strongest impression on readers.

The meeting will explore how Murakami portrays his female protagonists. Are they fully realized characters with their own voice, or primarily a reflection of the male protagonist's perspective? Why are their stories so deeply intertwined with trauma, vulnerability, and loss? And how do we read today a novel that became a literary phenomenon as early as 1987?

The evening will be hosted by Adam Škrovan.