A while back I had the opportunity to interview one of our greatest living novelists—Haruki Murakami. He spoke for about an hour at the midtown offices of his publisher, Random House. At the time, Murakami had just released and was promoting his fourteenth book, After Dark. We didn’t meet to discuss the novel, though. Instead we talked about the transcendent possibilities of great fiction. When I asked him about his favorite book of the past fifty years, here’s how he responded.

I had lunch with Ishiguro several years ago. He told me that he was almost finished with a new book. He wouldn’t tell me the title, though. We talked mostly about music. He likes jazz very much, and so do I. And he asked me if I know of any good Japanese jazz musicians. I said, ’Yeah, I know somebody. I’ll bring the CD to your hotel. And I brought the disc, which was called "Never Let Me Go." I guess it was a coincidence.