The English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel has been translated went on sale Tuesday in bookstores across the United States.

Around 70 fans of the renowned novelist lined up at a bookstore in Manhattan on Monday night so they could buy "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" as soon it went on sale at midnight.

"Shikisai wo Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to Kare no Junrei no Toshi" was published in Japan in April last year, selling 1 million copies sold in the first week.

The story revolves around a 36-year-old man, deeply hurt by his experiences in adolescence, who visits old friends 16 years later and thinks about the meaning of human ties.

Works by Murakami, who has often been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature, are popular in the United States.

Musician, artist and author Patti Smith wrote in The New York Times that readers "wait for his work the way past generations lined up at record stores for new albums by the Beatles or Bob Dylan."