This was due to Murakami viewing the two novels as 'works from his immature period'. All four books in the series have been translated into English, but Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 (which are realist novels slightly differing from the author's later style) were never widely distributed in the English-speaking world, having only been published in Japan by Kodansha under their Kodansha English Library branding (for English Foreign Language learners), and both only as A6-sized pocketbooks. It is the first book in the so-called 'Trilogy of the Rat' series of independent novels, followed by Pinball, 1973 ( 1980) and A Wild Sheep Chase ( 1982), before the later epilogue Dance Dance Dance (1988). An English translation by Alfred Birnbaum appeared in 1987. The novel was adapted by Japanese director Kazuki Ōmori in a 1981 film distributed by Art Theatre Guild. It first appeared in the June 1979 issue of Gunzo, and in book form the next month.

Hear the Wind Sing ( 風の歌を聴け, Kaze no uta o kike) is the first novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

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