[Reading about Japan at I-House Library]
Giorgio Amitrano reads from Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

  • *This event has finished.
  • Reader: Giorgio Amitrano (Director, Italian Cultural Institute of Tokyo)
  • Date: Thursday, February 5, 2015, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: The Library, International House of Japan
  • Language: English (without Japanese interpretation)
  • Admission: IHJ Members & Library Members: free, non-members: 1,000 yen
  • (reservations required) 
  • *This program will be held thanks to a contribution from an I-House member.

The works of Haruki Murakami, one of the most remarkable writers of modern Japanese literature, have been translated into more than 40 languages and highly acclaimed internationally since his debut in 1979.
In this session, Prof. Giorgio Amitrano, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, will read from Kafka on the Shore, and discuss it. Prof. Amitrano served as a professor in the Department of Political Science of the “Orientale” University of Naples, and later as the dean. In 2013 he was assigned to his present post.

Giorgio Amitrano

Photo: Giorgio Amitrano
Born in 1957. After graduating from the “Orientale” University of Naples, Prof. Amitrano taught Japanese language and literature in the same university and succeeded to the dean of the Department of Political Science in 2010. He has been the director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Tokyo since 2013. Prof. Amitrano has been introducing Japanese contemporary literature as a translator and academic in Italy, including works by Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Yasunari Kawabata, Kenji Miyazawa and Yasushi Inoue, and was awarded the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature and the Grinzane Cavour Prize (Lifetime Achievement Award) in 2001 and 2008, respectively.