Although most of the Japanese events are featured at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, there are a few unmissable events at the Edinburgh Book Festival and International Festival. Be sure to check out Haruki Murakami’s new book release, and Midori 2’s  concert recital in which she brings the two genres of classical and electronic music together, featuring Mario Davidovsky.

Book Festival:

• Haruki Murakami ­­­– The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 23 August 3:00pm

• Venue: Baillie Gifford Main Theatre

 

Involving a trademark mix of Tokyo urban landscapes and dream imagery, the novel ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ remains one of the Japanese writer’s most brilliant literary achievements. Murakami discusses his characters, plot and a wig factory with the Guardian’s John Mullan.

• Haruki Murakami – Japan’s Greatest Living Author, 24 August 6:30pm

• Venue: Baillie Gifford Main Theatre

 

Haruki Murakami joins us in Edinburgh for the worldwide English- language launch of his new novel, ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tamaki and His Years of Pilgrimage’, which sold more than 1 million copies in the week after its release in Japan.

International Festival:

• Midori 2 , 24 August

• Venue: The Queen’s Hall

 

She begins the second of her two Festival recitals, contrasting Bach’s seminal Sonatas and Partitas with contemporary violin music, and after the brilliant wit of a duo for violin and electronics by contemporary Argentinian-born composer Mario Davidovsky, Midori concludes with the exuberance of Bach’s lively final Partita in E major.

 

Text By Takeo Broadhurst (Eltham College)