Cue Card # 60: Your favourite author/writer

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 60

Describe your favourite author/writer.

You should say:

• who he/she is
• what type of books he/she writes
• how many of his/her books you have read so far

and explain why he/she is your favourite author/writer.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

I like to read all kinds of books, written by many different writers, because they all try to introduce our world around us, as well as our life experience, in different lights. But, since I am required to pick just one favourite author here and talk about him, I will just go ahead pick “Haruki Murakami”.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer and he was born in 1949 in one of the major Japanese cities called “Kyoto”. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. Widely renowned as one of the greatest writers of our modern era, this great Japanese writer has often been criticized by Japanese literary circles for being ‘un-Japanese’ because of the heavy influence of Western literature in his writing style.

Mr Haruki is a novelist, short-story writer, essayist and translator with a very strong presence in the literary genre of Fiction, Surrealism, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Bildungsroman (“coming-of-age” novel) Picaresque (a genre of “prose” fiction) and Realism. So far, I have read about 8 books, written by this prolific writer, some of which include “Kafka on the Shore”, “killing Commendatore”, “The wind-up bird chronicle” and “Norwegian Wood”. However, he got a major breakthrough and international recognition after the publication of “Norwegian Wood” in 1987. After that, he didn’t really have any time to look back as he became very busy becoming world famous and selling millions of copies of his books around the globe.

Haruki Murakami is my favourite writer, primarily because no other Japanese writers before him so successfully managed to merge the Japanese literature works with western literature. Besides, what sets this great writer apart from the contemporary writers is that all of his writings seem very effortless. I also like the fact that his unparallel imagination skill allows him to describe mundane events and activities in such a satisfying and enjoyable manner that it becomes almost possible for someone to disengage himself/herself from his captivating literature works.