Murakami: Covid, Ukraine war created walls, fear

TOKYO: Japanese author Haruki Murakami said walls were increasingly built and dividing people, and countries, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic fueled fear and skepticism.

"With feelings of suspicion replacing mutual trust, walls are continually being erected around us," Murakami said at Wellesley College in a late April speech — titled "Writing Fiction in the Time of Pandemic and War" — published in "The Shincho Monthly" literary magazine on Wednesday.