Haruki Murakami has won the second Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award – the richest short story prize, at 35,000 Euros – for BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN, his third collection of short stories to be published in English, the Guardian reports. The prize will be shared between Murakami and his translators, Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin. “If you have read Frank O’Connor’s Guests of the Nation you’ll be familiar with his theme that people need to recognise each other’s common humanity,” said Rubin, accepting the prize Sunday night at Millenium Cork Hall. “Haruki’s stories are similarly powerful. As a translator, I am overwhelmed and honoured and I am sure Haruki will be too.”
The jury, chaired by Tom McCarthy, was made up of Irish writer Claire Keegan, English author Toby Litt, German poet Silke Scheuermann, and American literature scholar Dr Maurice A Lee. They hailed the winning entry as a “truly wonderful collection” from a “master of prose fiction”. In a statement, they said: “Murakami writes with great integrity, unafraid of dealing with tough and difficult situations between people who constantly misunderstand each other.”