Haruki Murakami''s New Novel ''The Tale of KAHO'' Has a Woman as the Only Main Character

Apr 24, 2026, 11:25

Introduction

Haruki Murakami''s new novel, ''The Tale of KAHO,'' comes out in Japan on July 3. It will be in print and digital forms. This is the first long novel by Murakami with a woman as the only main character. The main character is Kaho. She is 26 years old and writes picture books.

Main Body

This is Murakami''s first long novel in three years. His last long novel had a male main character. The publisher says Kaho is the first woman to be the only main character in a Murakami novel. The story first came from a short story called ''Kaho.'' Murakami read it at an event at Waseda University two years ago. He read it with another writer, Mieko Kawakami. That story came out in the June 2024 edition of Shincho magazine. Later, Murakami wrote three more parts in the same magazine. The last part came out in the March 2025 edition. The four parts have these titles: ''The Anteater of Musashi-sakai,'' ''Kaho and the Termite Queen,'' and ''Kaho and the Motorcycle Man, and Scarlett Johansson.'' The new novel is 352 pages. It puts these parts together. The story follows Kaho. She has average looks and average intelligence, but she is very curious. A man she does not know tells her, ''To be honest, I have never seen anyone as ugly as you.'' She does not get angry. She becomes confused. She wants to find the hidden meaning in his words. This search leads her into many strange events. A short advertisement from the publisher says, ''I must find the way out of this world.'' Murakami wrote much of the novel after he got better from a bad sickness. He says this book is ''more hopeful'' than his earlier books. He says it felt natural to write as a woman. He says he ''became her.'' An English translation of the first story came out in The New Yorker in 2024. Philip Gabriel did the translation.

Conclusion

The book ''The Tale of KAHO'' comes out on July 3. It is a change for Murakami. It is his first long novel with a woman as the main character. The book will be in print and digital forms.

Vocabulary Learning

character
a person in a story角色
Example:Kaho is the only main character.
curious
wanting to know more about something好奇的
Example:Kaho is very curious.
main
most important主要的
Example:The main character is Kaho.
story
a description of events, real or made up故事
Example:The story comes from a short story.
writes
makes words on paper or computer寫
Example:She writes picture books.

Sentence Learning

Haruki Murakami's new novel, 'The Tale of KAHO,' comes out in Japan on July 3.
This sentence uses the present simple tense to talk about a future event. The subject is 'Haruki Murakami's new novel', and the verb is 'comes out'.本句使用一般现在时描述未来事件。主语是'Haruki Murakami's new novel'，谓语是'comes out'。
This is the first long novel by Murakami with a woman as the only main character.
This sentence uses 'This is' to introduce something. The phrase 'with a woman as the only main character' describes the novel.本句使用'This is'来介绍事物。短语'with a woman as the only main character'修饰小说。
The main character is Kaho.
This is a simple sentence with subject 'The main character' and verb 'is'. It gives a definition.本句是一个简单句，主语是'The main character'，谓语是'is'。它给出了定义。
She is 26 years old and writes picture books.
This sentence has two verbs connected by 'and'. 'is' describes her age, and 'writes' describes her job.本句有两个动词由'and'连接。'is'描述她的年龄，'writes'描述她的工作。
The story first came from a short story called 'Kaho.'
This sentence uses the past simple tense 'came' to talk about the origin. 'called 'Kaho'' is a past participle phrase describing the short story.本句使用一般过去时'came'谈论来源。'called 'Kaho''是过去分词短语修饰短篇小说。