About the Author

Wahei Tatematsu (1947-2010) won a major literary prize while still a student and was one of Japan's most renowned writers, Hidaka being by far his most famous work. He was also known for environmental work. Philip Gabriel is one of the major translators into English of the works of Haruki Murakami. His translations have appeared in Harper's, the New Yorker, and other publications. He has received the Sasakawa Prize for Japanese Literature, the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for Translation of Japanese Literature, and the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize. He is a professor and department head at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.