Author Ryu Murakami, whose daring works explored sex, violence and youth culture and were translated around the world, has died, his publisher announced Friday. He was 74 years old.
“We are deeply and unbearably saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Ryu Murakami, who spent his career continually publishing shocking works aimed at younger audiences,” publisher Gentosha said in a statement Friday.
Among the writer’s best-known works is his first “Almost Transparent Blue”, which depicts the depravity of a youth immersed in drugs and sex and which earned him one of Japan’s most prestigious literary prizes in 1976.
His 1980 novel, “Coin Locker Babies,” featured children abandoned in luggage lockers and their subsequent survival, while 1997’s “In The Miso Soup” depicted a tourist’s plunge into Tokyo’s red light district.
“We pray for the peace of Murakami, who went through his life as a pioneer of an era,” Gentosha said.
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