Lily-Rose Depp’s Favorite Author Boasts an Impressive Collection of Books to Explore

Lily-Rose Depp’s favorite author, Haruki Murakami, writes strange, dark stories

It’s no wonder that Lily-Rose Depp gravitates towards the writing of Japanese legend Haruki Murakami. The author is famous for creating unreal worlds full of darkness and strange stories. Depp herself gravitates towards darker projects, like the 2024 horror film, “Nosferatu,” where she plays the character Ellen, who’s haunted by a demonic love. So Depp’s aesthetic appreciation of a writer as complex as Murakami makes sense.

In a 2019 interview with The New Yorker, Murakami spoke about his own work. “You need the power of concentration and endurance,” he said of a writing life. “I sometimes write very unhealthy things. Weird things. Twisted things.” Murakami brings this eerie power into all of his works. In addition to the two books Depp mentioned, the author has a massive backlog of publications that are well worth the read. While speaking with The New Yorker, Murakami admitted that his third book, “A Wild Sheep Chase,” published in 1982, was when his literary career really began. His 1988 novel “Dance Dance Dance” combines magical realism with a darkly fantastical world, while his 2002 novel “Kafka on the Shore” resonated deeply with readers. Meanwhile, Murakami’s three-volume set called “IQ84” is a dystopian story of religious cults and dual narratives. Depp is certainly onto something in her readerly appreciation of the literary worlds of torment and complexities that Murakami creates.