村上春樹，1949年生於日本兵庫縣，早稻田大學戲劇係畢業，1979年以第一部創作小說《聽風的歌》得到當年日本的群像新人奬。獲得野間文藝新人奬和榖崎潤一郎奬的作品――《挪 威的森林》――迄今賣瞭超過700萬本，使作者成為日本最暢銷的作傢。村上春樹曾翻譯F.s cott Fitzgerald，Paul Theroux，John lrving 及Raymond chandler的小說，九十年代 在美國普林頓大學和Tufts University任客座講師。

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset; a couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's; a woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden; an insomniac wife wakes up to a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. In every one of the stories that make up The Elephant Vanishes, Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal. He has a deadpan genius for dislocating realities to uncover the surreal in the everyday, the extraordinary in the ordinary. (20021018)