1. The Beatles have regularly provided the titles for works by Murakami. Spot the song he has yet to use

   1. Norwegian Wood

   2. Drive My Car

   3. Yesterday

   4. Helter Skelter

2. Murakami's novels are much influenced by US writers, and he has translated many of them into Japanese. Which of these authors has he NOT translated?

   1. F Scott Fitzgerald

   2. Don DeLillo

   3. Raymond Chandler

   4. Truman Capote

3. Midnight bookshop openings heralded the arrival in English of his latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. But do you know who translated it?

   1. Philip Gabriel

   2. Jay Rubin

   3. John Mullan

   4. David Mitchell

4. Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973, and A Wild Sheep Chase form a trilogy: what is it called?

   1. Trilogy of the Cat

   2. Trilogy of the Bat

   3. Trilogy of the Rat

   4. Trilogy of the Fat

5. Murakami's non-fiction book Underground was about which traumatic event?

   1. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings

   2. The sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo

   3. The Sino-Japanese war of 1937-1945

   4. The Boshin war of 1868-1869

6. As well as writing, which of these jobs has Murakami done?

   1. Drilled wells for the Tokyo water authority

   2. Written computer programs

   3. Run a jazz club

   4. Drummed for cult band the Boredoms

7. One of contemporary literature's more athletic practitioners, Murakami has completed long-distance runs of up to what distance?

   1. 13 miles, 192.5 yards

   2. 26 miles, 385 yards

   3. 50km

   4. 100km

8. Who directed the film version of Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood?

   1. Tran Anh Hung

   2. Ang Lee

   3. Beat Takeshi

   4. Richard Curtis

9. Short story collection The Elephant Vanishes was adapted into which medium?

   1. A play by Theatre de Complicité

   2. A ballet by Matthew Bourne

   3. A film by Akira Kurosawa

   4. A concept album by David Bowie

10. Which one of these subjects is not among Murakami's own list of his obsessions?

    1. Elephants

    2. Penguins

    3. The refrigerator

    4. The ironing

Solutions

1:D, 2:B, 3:A, 4:C, 5:B, 6:C, 7:D, 8:A, 9:A, 10:B

Scores

1. 3 and above.

   Very poor. Your years of pilgrimage do not seem to have included many visits to the library

2. 5 and above.

   Not bad, but no occasion to Dance, Dance, Dance

3. 8 and above.

   Brilliant. A 1Q a long way above 84