In the Guardian, Justin McCurry covers the Japanese publication of 1Q84, Haruki Murakami’s latest novel.
The debate over the novel’s title has yet to be settled, however. Some believe it was influenced by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, since the letter Q, when pronounced in English, is a homonym for the number nine in Japanese, pronounced “kyuu”.
Others insist that the title is a tribute to The True Story of Ah Q, a novella by the Chinese writer Lu Xun, whose work is said to have influenced Murakami.