After DarkA short, sleek novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami's masterworks "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka on the Shore." At its center are two sisters--Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny's toward people whose lives are radically alien to her own: a jazz trombonist who claims they've met before, a burly female "love hotel" manager and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These "night people" are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Eri's slumber--mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime--will either restore or annihilate her. " After Dark "moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency--the interplay between self-expression and empathy, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
7-Eleven Alphaville answer Anyhow Boston Red Sox breath camera cell phone chair chicken salad Chinese close coffee Curtis Fuller dark deep Denny's desk door drink Eri Asai Eri's eyes face feel fingers fluorescent lamps garbage girl gives glass goes gonna hair hand happened hard HARUKI MURAKAMI Japanese Kaoru says keep kind kinda Korogi says light lips love hotel Mari asks Mari looks Mari nods Mari says Mari shakes Mari's mean mouth move never night okay picks playing pocket pretty probably prostitute pulls puts Ryan O'Neal says Kaoru seems shakes her head Shirakawa shoulder side silence sister sits sleep smile sound stares stop straight street stuff sure Takahashi asks Takahashi says takes talk tell there's thing trombone trying TV screen Uh-huh varsity jacket walk watch window woman yakuza Yeah young