In the title story of a collection by this author, a woman asks the narrator if he enjoys being “All dressed up, alone at a bar… quietly into your reading” before berating him about something he did by the shore three years earlier. That story references an earlier story by this author in which an old man at a beach tells the narrator that the “most important essence of life” is the “crème de la crème.” This author wrote about a man who described a time when he listened to Wagner operas in exchange for bread. In another story by this author, a man admits to his habit of burning barns. This author of First Person Singular and The Elephant Vanishes described a man who is accused of killing his cat by his wife in a short story that later became the first chapter of a book about Toru Okada. For 10 points, name this author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. ■END■
ANSWER: Haruki Murakami (The story in the second sentence is “Cream.” The stories in the third sentence are “The Second Bakery Attack” and “Barn Burning.”)
<Maryland B, World Literature>
= Average correct buzz position