> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.unknowndivide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ryu Murakami Books: Where to Start With the Author of Almost Transparent Blue - URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/ryu-murakami-books-where-to-start/ - Published: 2026-10-24T14:21:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T14:24:20.000Z - Description: Ryu Murakami books are in demand after Gentosha announced the novelist died at home on October 17 at age 74. Here is where to start, from In the Miso Soup and Coin Locker Babies to Sixty-Nine. - Author: unknowndivide staff - Tags: Culture Searches for Ryu Murakami books have jumped this week after his longtime publisher shared sad news. In a [notice posted on October 23](https://www.gentosha.co.jp/topic/detail/033590/?ref=unknowndivide.com), Gentosha and the Murakami Ryu Office said the novelist died at home on October 17, 2026, at age 74, and that the family has already held a private funeral. For readers who only know the name, or who know it mostly from film, here is where to start with his work. ## Who Ryu Murakami was Murakami was born in 1952 in Nagasaki Prefecture. According to the [profile Gentosha published with the notice](https://www.gentosha.co.jp/topic/item/261023.pdf?ref=unknowndivide.com), he wrote his debut novel, Almost Transparent Blue, while still a university student. It won the Gunzo New Writers Prize and the Akutagawa Prize in 1976 and went on to sell around 3.5 million copies in Japan across hardcover and paperback. He kept working across forms for five decades. He directed and wrote film versions of his own novels Topaz and KYOKO, spent about 20 years as the main interviewer on the business talk show Cambria Palace, and wrote 13-sai no Hello Work, a guide to more than 600 jobs for young readers that sold over 1.8 million copies. Gentosha lists his final book as YouTuber. The publisher's statement says that from Almost Transparent Blue onward he kept putting out shocking work aimed at younger generations, and calls him a front runner of his era. [Pushkin Press](https://pushkinpress.com/authors/ryu-murakami/?ref=unknowndivide.com), one of his English publishers, introduces him as the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. ## Where to start reading Ryu Murakami These are the English translations that are easiest to find right now, with a note on what each one is like. - **In the Miso Soup (1997).** The best first read for most people. An American tourist named Frank hires a young guide, Kenji, to show him Tokyo's nightlife in the days before New Year, and Kenji slowly starts to suspect his client is a killer. [Penguin](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/296411/in-the-miso-soup-by-ryu-murakami/?ref=unknowndivide.com) publishes it in Ralph McCarthy's translation, and Gentosha notes it won the Yomiuri Prize for Literature. - **Coin Locker Babies (1980).** His big, wild early novel. Two babies abandoned in coin lockers at a Tokyo station survive and grow up in a place called Toxitown, one becoming a rock singer searching for his mother and the other an athlete set on revenge. [Pushkin Press](https://pushkinpress.com/book/coin-locker-babies/?ref=unknowndivide.com) publishes Stephen Snyder's translation, and it won the Noma Literary New Face Prize. - **Piercing (1994).** A short, tense psychological thriller about a Tokyo graphic designer fighting a terrible urge, and the chain of events that follows. [Penguin](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297639/piercing-by-ryu-murakami/?ref=unknowndivide.com) calls it the follow-up to In the Miso Soup, and it became a film starring Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska. - **Sixty-Nine (1987).** The lighter side. A funny coming-of-age story about a 17-year-old and his friends in 1969, arguing about Godard and the Stones, barricading their school and planning a rock festival. [Pushkin Press](https://pushkinpress.com/book/sixty-nine/?ref=unknowndivide.com) has it in a short paperback. - **From the Fatherland, with Love (2005).** The epic. In an alternate present where the economy has collapsed, a North Korean rebel force lands in Fukuoka, and a gang of young misfits decides to fight back. Gentosha notes the original won the Noma Literary Prize and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. [Pushkin Press](https://pushkinpress.com/book/from-the-fatherland-with-love/?ref=unknowndivide.com) publishes it at nearly 700 pages. If you want the order we would suggest, go In the Miso Soup, then Coin Locker Babies, then Sixty-Nine for a change of pace, and save From the Fatherland, with Love for when you are ready for a long one. His books deal with violence, drugs and sex in direct terms, so they are not for every reader. ## Shop Ryu Murakami books - [In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami, paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/014303569X?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) - [Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami, paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/180533025X?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) - [Piercing by Ryu Murakami, paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/014303863X?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) - [Sixty-Nine by Ryu Murakami, paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/190896846X?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) - [From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryu Murakami, paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1908968494?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) *As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.* Looking for more to read? See our guide on [where to start with Anne Carson](https://www.unknowndivide.com/anne-carson-nobel-prize-literature-where-to-start/), and for more from Japan, read about [Hirokazu Koreeda's Look Back](https://www.unknowndivide.com/hirokazu-koreeda-look-back-december-30/) or explore our [Japanese city pop starter guide](https://www.unknowndivide.com/japanese-city-pop-starter-guide-essential-albums/).