(Madrid) The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, whose books are published in millions of copies around the world, received on Wednesday the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature, one of the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, for his work in halfway between “the real and the dreamlike”.

This 74-year-old novelist, who has become a “cult author” in many countries, has succeeded in “reconciling Japanese tradition and the heritage of Western culture in an ambitious and innovative story”, underlined, in a press release, the Foundation who awards this prize.

His work, “which mixes the everyday world of contemporary Japan and references to pop culture”, addresses “the most serious social problems” in an “intimate tone” and “tinged with humor”, add the persons in charge of this prize, considered the Nobel Prize for Spanish Literature.

Born in Kyoto in 1949, Haruki Murakami is the author of around ten novels, as well as short stories and essays, translated into around fifty languages. Among his best-known books are Chronicles of the Spring Bird (1994), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009).

This author, who managed a jazz club at the start of his literary career, is regularly among the favorites for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His new Drive my car was adapted for the cinema and the film won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2022.