In a set of interviews published as The Owl Spreads Its Wings with the Falling of the Dusk, this author asked another to respond to criticism of his women characters as “forced into an overly sexual role.” For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this author of Heaven. The protagonist of a novel by this Japanese author considers using a sperm donor, but finds that as an unmarried woman, she is ineligible to receive one.
ANSWER: Mieko Kawakami [or Kawakami Mieko] (The novel is Breasts and Eggs.)
[10e] In that interview about this author’s women characters, Kawakami praised the way he represented a woman’s voice in his story “Sleep.” This author wrote Norwegian Wood.
ANSWER: Haruki Murakami [or Murakami Haruki]
[10m] Murakami claimed that of his work, this novel’s protagonist was the female character he had spent most time “engaging with.” That protagonist is magically impregnated after a cult leader’s death in this Murakami novel.
ANSWER: 1Q84
<Albert Nyang, World Literature>