# Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森) (novel)
**Norwegian Wood** (ノルウェイの森, *Noruwei no Mori*) is a two-volume novel by the Japanese writer [Haruki Murakami](https://www.edgepedia.org/haruki-murakami) (村上春樹, born 1949), published by Kodansha in September 1987 and named after the Beatles song of the same title.[1](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000001878759) • [2](https://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/prdl/jsrd/norma/n254/n254_07.html) It is a story of love and loss among young people carrying the deaths of friends, told in first person by a man looking back on his student years in Tokyo.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/) The book became one of the best-selling Japanese novels of the postwar period and made Murakami a nationally known author in Japan.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Publication | Kodansha, Tokyo, September 1987, two volumes (hardcover 267 and 260 pages); ISBN 4-06-203515-4[1](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000001878759) • [4](https://www.haruki-m.com/works/long.html) |
| Early sales | 4.3 million copies across the two volumes, an unprecedented figure for a Japanese literary novel at the time[2](https://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/prdl/jsrd/norma/n254/n254_07.html) |
| Later totals | 8.7 million copies domestically and translations into 36 languages reported around the 2006 film announcement; 10.95 million including paperbacks by 2011[5](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0014706) • [6](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php) |
| Author's label | Murakami himself wrote the obi slogan calling it a "100 percent love story"[7](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/) |
| Source material | Partly based on his short story "Firefly" (螢); the paperback edition carries a rare author's afterword in the second volume[7](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/) |
| Film adaptation | Directed by Tran Anh Hung, released 2010, after the director personally negotiated permission with Murakami[6](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php) |
## Story
The frame is set in 1987: the narrator, Watanabe, aged 37, hears an orchestral arrangement of "[Norwegian Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/norwegian-wood-this-bird-has-flown)" on a plane arriving in Hamburg and is thrown back to memories of a woman who died eighteen years earlier.[4](https://www.haruki-m.com/works/long.html)
The recollection follows Watanabe as a university student. His close friend Kizuki killed himself in their high school years without giving a reason, and that death stays with him.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/) In Tokyo, Watanabe meets Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, by chance on the Chuo Line; the two share Kizuki's death and grow close.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/) • [8](https://sapporo-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/871/files/KJ00006112786.pdf) The story turns on Naoko's twentieth birthday, after which, deeply unsettled, she leaves university and enters a rest facility near Kyoto.[8](https://sapporo-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/871/files/KJ00006112786.pdf) • [3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/)
At the same time Watanabe meets Midori, a lively fellow student. Where Naoko is a quiet presence standing on the side of the dead, Midori is a bright, realistic presence on the side of the living, and Watanabe is pulled between the two.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/) Naoko kills herself at the facility, and the people close to Watanabe die one after another. The novel centers on a single question: how to take on those deaths and go on living.[3](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/) The book is also the source of one of Murakami's most quoted lines, that death exists not as the opposite of life but as a part of it.[7](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/)
## Publication and reception
The novel appeared in September 1987 as a written-from-scratch two-volume work and became an immediate bestseller, selling 4.3 million copies across both volumes, described at the time as an unprecedented figure for a full-length novel.[2](https://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/prdl/jsrd/norma/n254/n254_07.html) • [7](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/) The boom it created is credited with starting the wider "Murakami boom" in Japan.[9](https://contents.kocw.or.kr/document/lec/2011/46/13/japan_05.pdf) Circulation kept growing: 8.7 million copies domestically with translations into 36 languages were reported when the film adaptation was announced, and a 2011 interview put combined hardcover and paperback circulation at 10.95 million.[5](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0014706) • [6](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php)
**A different kind of Murakami.** Commentators regularly note that the book is atypical for its author. It is described as the one Murakami long novel that can be called a realist novel, set in a world closer to everyday reality than the fantastic settings of works such as *[Kafka on the Shore](https://www.edgepedia.org/kafka-on-the-shore)* or *Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World*, and the campus scenes evoke Murakami's own alma mater, [Waseda University](https://www.edgepedia.org/waseda-university).[10](https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/259332/1/murakami_review2_1.pdf) • [11](https://www.yomiho.jp/novel/noruuino-2) The protagonist's background also matches the author's in many details, and Murakami attached an afterword, unusual for him, calling the book "an extremely personal novel".[7](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/) • [10](https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/259332/1/murakami_review2_1.pdf) A scholarly comparison with his early stories finds that motifs from "Firefly" and "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" were deliberately removed, suggesting material the author chose to conceal behind the realist surface.[10](https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/259332/1/murakami_review2_1.pdf)
The success had a cost for the author. Murakami called 1988, the year after publication, his "blank year", saying it was spiritually the hardest period for him and that for about a year he did not feel like writing novels.[12](https://petit.lib.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/29857/files/167842) At the same time, the hit contributed to his overseas breakthrough in the 1990s, after earlier English translations of his work had remained largely cult reading.[12](https://petit.lib.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/29857/files/167842)
## Film adaptation
Murakami is known for reluctance about film versions of his work, especially his long novels. The Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung had wanted to film *Norwegian Wood* since first reading it, sent Murakami a direct letter about seven years before production, and obtained permission in person; the film was released in 2010, the first adaptation of the novel in the 23 years since publication.[6](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php) • [5](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0014706) In interviews the director highlighted Naoko's roommate Reiko, who combines qualities of both Naoko and Midori, and described linking Watanabe's inner pain to a physical wound in a key scene.[6](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php)
## References
1. [ノルウェイの森, NDL Search, National Diet Library](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000001878759)
2. [村上春樹著『ノルウェーの森』](https://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/prdl/jsrd/norma/n254/n254_07.html)
3. [ノルウェイの森, 文学史ナビ](https://bungakushi.com/japan/work/noruwei-no-mori/)
4. [村上春樹さんの長編小説一覧, 村上春樹研究所](https://www.haruki-m.com/works/long.html)
5. [村上春樹「ノルウェイの森」が映画化決定！, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0014706)
6. [『ノルウェイの森』トラン・アン・ユン監督インタビュー, CINRA](https://www.cinra.net/article/interview-2011-01-04-000000-php)
7. [村上春樹全長編作品を読むおすすめの順番, あすどく](https://bobisummer.com/haruki-murakami-novels/)
8. [村上春樹「ノルウェイの森」論, 札幌大学](https://sapporo-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/871/files/KJ00006112786.pdf)
9. [ノルウェイの森, KOCW lecture document](https://contents.kocw.or.kr/document/lec/2011/46/13/japan_05.pdf)
10. [『ノルウェイの森』の隠蔽, 三宅香帆, Kyoto University repository](https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/259332/1/murakami_review2_1.pdf)
11. [『ノルウェイの森（下）』要約&レビュー, ヨミホ！](https://www.yomiho.jp/novel/noruuino-2)
12. [『村上春樹とアダプテーション研究』Vol.3, Yamaguchi University](https://petit.lib.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/29857/files/167842)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Standalone novels › Standalone novels by language and national tradition (non-English)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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