Two months back when I reviewed Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase, I mentioned that the 1970 seppuku of the internationally-acclaimed Yukio Mishima overshadowed the Japanese literary world for some years afterward.
As a kind of self-contained as well as finite wholeness, Djinn, authored by the godfather of the Nouveau Roman himself
This past February, one of the most brilliant contemporaries in the literary world passed away. His name was Umberto Eco, who was an Italian professor in semiotics. In 1980, he won surprising acclaim in the Italian publishing world for The Name of the Rose, and later, in 1983, he had similar international success with the English translation.
Not only was the novel a hit with the majority of book reviewers, its popularity spread throughout the public, and film rights were quickly optioned with famous young actors seeking to the play the protagonist’s role.
What are some of the things that come to your mind when you think of the 1980s? Manhattan. Cocaine. Partying. Fashion. Yuppie culture.
When the publishing world released Empire of the Sun in 1984, it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.