CUSTOMERS at Waterstones’ flagship store in Glasgow have been mystified by the appearance of a 1970s-style pinball machine just inside the front door of the shop in Sauchiehall Street.
Despite it being mobbed by lovable young scamps yesterday, the free-to-play pinball machine is there for a serious adult purpose – to promote the publication in the UK of two books by one of the world’s great authors, Haruki Murakami of Japan.
Emblazoned with the name of the Nobel Prize for Literature contender, the pinball machine certainly caused a deal of interest at Waterstones.
“Izzat the name o’ the game, pal?” asked one of the scamps. “Maruk..muka...mur-who? Where’s it fae?”
On being informed that Japan was the homeland of renowned author Haruki Murakami, and that his novels Pinball, 1973 and Hear The Wind Sing had been combined as Wind/Pinball and translated and published for the first time in Britain, the youngster merely said “aye, right” and completed a high score well beyond the capabilities of most adults.
It is not known whether Glasgow’s diminutive pinball wizard was aware that he could go head-to-head with other players in Glasgow and London and win a copy of Murakami’s Wind/Pinball, published by Harvill Secker.
It is they who have designed and created the bespoke pinball machines, the other one being located in Waterstones Piccadilly in London.
Customers can share their high scores on social media using the hashtag #murakamipinball, with the highest scores each day winning a signed copy of Wind/Pinball.
Harvill Secker is publishing Pinball, 1973 and Hear the Wind Sing, first published in the 1970s and 1980s in Japan, back-to-back as a reversible hardback.
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