Japanese author Haruki Murakami has released his latest novel, with a title that can be translated as “The city and the uncertain walls”.

By midnight in Tokyo, fans of the novelist had lined up to get their copy of the new book.

– I started writing this novel at the beginning of March 2020, when the coronavirus started to wreak havoc in Japan. It took me almost three years to complete, says Murakami.

He says he himself has been isolated a lot during the pandemic.

– I was barely out of the house, and I haven’t traveled far. In such a tense and strange environment, I continued to write steadily, day after day, says the author.

He describes the writing process during the pandemic as “reading old dreams in a library.” Moreover, he wonders about the meaning of the situation he was in – and if there is such a thing:

– But there must be some meaning to it. I feel that on my body, says Murakami in his thoughts on the pandemic and working on the book.

On Saturday, images on social media show how many Japanese reading horses spent the night: in a cafe with 661 pages of the newly printed Murakami.

The book should be translated into English and Norwegian. Murakami’s previous books were released in translated form about a year after the Japanese launch.

The new book takes place in a city surrounded by high walls. The book is set in the same universe as “Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world” – a novel Murakami wrote in 1985, before his big international breakthrough.

Murakami has become a worldwide literary star. He is known for his books that explore themes such as loneliness, grief, and identity.

Year after year, the author has been among the favorites on bookmakers’ lists of possible winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Murakami’s previous novel, The Commander’s Assassination, was published in 2017.