TOKYO (AFP) ― Best-selling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami next month will publish his first compilation of short stories in nine years, including one new offering, his publisher said Monday.

The compilation titled “Onna no Inai Otokotachi” ― which can be translated as “Men Without Women” ― will be published on April 18, the Bungei Shunju publishing house said.

The collection will include five short novels which have already been published separately in magazines and one new offering.

Among them is a 24-page novella, “Drive my car ― men without women,” which contained a passage which offended a small Japanese town for suggesting its residents habitually throw lit cigarettes from car windows.

Murakami has expressed regret over his portrayal of the town and said he intends to change the name when the story comes out in book form.

Murakami, 65, whose often surrealist works have been translated into about 40 languages, is widely spoken of as a future Nobel Literature laureate.