PRAGUE -- Japanese author Haruki Murakami appeared in Prague on Monday (Tuesday Japanese time) to receive the Franz Kafka literary prize.
The 57-year-old was presented with a bronze statue of Kafka and prize money of 10,000 dollars (about 1.2 million yen). Organizers said they gave the prize to Murakami, as his works have widely appealed to readers regardless of race, nationality or culture, just as those of Kafka.
At the ceremony Murakami gave a speech in English, saying that ever since he read Kafka's novel "The Castle" at the age of 15, Kafka had been his favorite author. He read out part of a letter Kafka wrote to a friend in 1904, saying that "a book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us."
The Franz Kafka prize was established in 2001. Two past winners, including British playwright Harold Pinter, who won the award in 2005, have also been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
At the ceremony, Murakami appeared relaxed, willingly responding to requests for his autograph after the presentation ceremony. In a news conference ahead of the ceremony, Murakami said that the prize for him was his readers. His works have been translated into about 35 languages, and he said it was an honor for him to have a large number of readers throughout the world.
Murakami's novel "Norwegian Wood" is popular in the Czech Republic, and his work "Kafka on the Shore" was published in October. (Mainichi)
October 31, 2006
source:
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entert...et009000c.html
Haruki Murakami awarded Franz Kafka literary prize
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