A devotional anticipation is generated by the announcement of a new Haruki Murakami book. Readers wait for his work the way past generations lined up at record stores for new albums by the Beatles or Bob Dylan. There is a happily frenzied collective expectancy — the effect of cultural voice, the Murakami effect. Within seven days of its midnight release, “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” sold over one million copies in Japan. I envision readers queuing up at midnight outside Tokyo bookstores: the alienated, the athletic, the disenchanted and the buoyant. I can’t help wondering what effect the book had on them, and what they were hoping for: the surreal, intra-dimensional side of Murakami or his more minimalist, realist side?

Read more

Slowly but surely, Middle Eastern art is gaining international recognition, a transformation in which, whether as collectors or directors, writers or curators, Middle Eastern women are playing a vital role. We have compiled a list of 10 influential women in the Middle East’s art scene who are leading creativity in the region and challenging stereotypes as they do so.

Read more