Haruki Murakami's longtime editor spills the tea on working with the master

Lexy Bloom first read Haruki Murakami in the '90s, when she picked up A Wild Sheep Chase . At that point, not much of the Japanese author's work had been published in English. But Bloom often read his stories in The New Yorker , trying to guess which of his three translators had worked on each one. Bloom, who is now a senior editor at Knopf, began to edit Murakami's English translations years later, starting with 1Q84 . Now, Murakami has a new novel out, The City and Its Uncertain Walls , a revision of an earlier novella. In today's episode, Bloom joins NPR's Andrew Limbong for a discussion that touches on what it's like to collaborate with Murakami, feminist critiques of the author's female characters, and reading the author's work through a Western lens. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy