Emiliano Ponzi Illustrates Haruki Murakami's New Novel

Italian illustrator Emiliano Ponzi has created the artwork for Haruki Murakami's new book "Abbandonare un gatto" (Einaudi). This marks the first time Murakami, a perennial Nobel Prize favorite, writes about his family, focusing on his relationship with his father. Ponzi describes his illustrations as "aged polaroids with pastel tones," aiming to preserve the spirituality of the deeply personal text. The collaboration began months ago when Ponzi sent initial drawings to Murakami, who responded within days, requesting copies of the book without any changes. Ponzi, who has worked for The New York Times, Le Monde, The Economist, La Repubblica, and designed covers for Feltrinelli, Penguin, and Mondadori, also documented daily life in Milan during the first coronavirus wave for The Washington Post. For this project, he researched iconographic material to credibly interpret scenes from wartime Japan. Ponzi notes that while the U.S. editorial market is larger and more diverse, Italy is slowly beginning to value illustration.