Born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture, Ryu Murakami is the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for his first book, he has gone on to explore with cinematic intensity the themes of violence and technology in contemporary Japanese society. His novels include Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine, From the Fatherland, with Love and Popular Hits of the Showa Era, all published by Pushkin Press, as well as Audition and In the Miso Soup. Murakami is also a screenwriter and director; among his films are Tokyo Decadence, Audition and Because of You.