CBC Radio’s Tom Powers interviewed professor Ted Goosen, a professor in Humanities, who has helped translate several of the Japanese works of Haruki Murakami, one of the world’s best-known writers, including his recently published story collection, Men Without Women.
In Japan, Murakami fans line up at bookstores when his novels are released. One million copies of his novel 1Q84 sold in the first month. Murakami’s novels and short story collections also sell by the millions outside of Japan and have been translated in over 40 languages.
Goossen talks to Tom Power about Murakami’s penchant for jazz, the Beach Boys and the Beatles, what Murakami is like in person, and the challenges of being a translator for one of the world’s most renowned writers.