English translations of Haruki Murakami’s fiction have been published by a wide array of magazines in the US and UK (including in Granta). But Murakami has enjoyed an especially close relationship with the New Yorker, which first published his short story ‘TV People’ in its September 10, 1990 issue. In the foreword to the Japanese edition of his story collection The Elephant Vanishes, Murakami describes this as an experience ‘as incredible as walking on the moon’ that made him ‘happier than any literary prize could’. The magazine has since gone on to publish over thirty stories/novel excerpts by the Japanese author and has played a significant role in building his readership and reputation in the English-speaking world. But there was, of course, a time when Murakami was still new to the magazine. The following extract, which looks at the editorial process behind the publication of the short story ‘The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday’s Women’ in the New Yorker in 1991, provides one example of the variety of voices that have gone into creating the English variation of the author Haruki Murakami.