A 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. 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. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery.
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"This is most likely going to be one of my new favorites of his. So keenly observant, and his aesthetic has always agreed with me. Had to read this in one sitting. He creates dialogue with such elegant undercurrents, and he never fails to surprise me. I think it was good that I haven't read his work in a while--my experience was fresher without comparison."
— Julie (4 out of 5 stars)
Unlike many of Murakami’s other characters, After Dark’s two heroes aren’t acutely passive slackers. Night may darken their daily duties, but it can’t blacken the ever-shifting shutter speeds of Murakami’s cockeyed Kodak . . . His unusual in-camera narration permits even his minor misfits to shine while focusing on how humanity overlooks the spectral figures toiling before dawn . . . It is straight-ahead jazz with a quiet grace.”
–Edward Champion, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
After Dark is a potent and disturbing work, one that is all the more effective for the familiar aspects it presents. He reminds us that the essence of horror in the post-modern narrative is not some gothic extravagance, but the realities that await us outside our doorstep.”
–-Ted Gioia, The Boston Globe
The best thing about After Dark is its cohesive atmosphere, one of delay and suspense, as time slows down and everybody gets the creeps. If Mr. Murakami were to attempt a 24-hour epic, his would emphasize the night as James James Joyce emphasized the day.”
–Benjamin Lytal, The New York Sun
Luminous . . . After Dark brings characters together, penetrating their solitude. Here, instead of mining loneliness, the author builds a sense of interweaving destinies and blossoming relationships [in] a tightly controlled narrative, carefully constructed in both time and place . . . We stay alert to exact detail on each page, within every frame. The result is palpable and enthralling . . . Like most of the innovative writer's work, it is bound to linger in the mind for years."
--Lee Makela, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Strange, confusing, and incredible.”
--Esquire
Darkly entertaining.”
–Publishers Weekly
After Dark is a bittersweet novel that will satisfy the most demanding literary taste. It is a sort of neo-noir flick set in half-empty diners, dark streets and hotel rooms straight out of the paintings of Edward Hopper. It reminds us that while great pleasures make this life worth living, great danger threatens the fictitious stability of our lives . . . that the world is broad, that myths are universal--and that while we sleep, the world out there is moving in mysterious and unpredictable ways."
--Juvenal Acosta, The San Francisco Chronicle
Disarmingly intimate, almost tactile . . . The narrative flows like a jazz ballad [in which] each character is unique in his or her loneliness, yet each possesses a capacity for momentary empathy that is both sweet and heartbreaking. Murakami's genius, on both large and small canvases, is to create worlds both utterly alien and disconcertingly familiar."
--Bill Ott, Booklist
A seductive and gratifying intellectual and romantic adventure."
–Corrie Pikul, Elle
This mesmerizing tale [is] a metaphysical mystery that’s surprisingly linear in structure and almost tidy for [Murakami’s] oeuvre . . . After Dark deftly explores existentialist notions of purpose, control, and identity.”
–Sam Coale, The Providence Journal
This strange, mesmerizing, spell-binding, voyeuristic novel is impossible to put down . . . The reader prowls among [its characters], uneasy about such a relentless perspective, yet unable to relinquish it. In such a way does Murakami skillfully and seamlessly strip the human condition of its disguises and ponder the impenetrable mysteries of the human heart.”
–Heller McAlpin, The Christian Science Monitor
There’s a dreamlike quality to Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing new novel, [where] amid the alienation are flickers of hopefulness springing from seemingly random, serendipitous human interactions and connections . . . Like a latter-day Walker Percy or Albert Camus, Murakami raises questions about perception and existence [and] captures the palpable loneliness and essential unfathomability at the heart of modern life.”
–Alexis Burling, The Washington Post
What you’ll love: The book’s spare yet eerily atmospheric scenes will fester under your skin, poking at your equilibrium long after you’ve finished reading.”
--Laura Miller, Salon
After Dark [is] one of the author's most fully realized short fictions . . . He's drilling down to the essential mysteries of existence."
--Joanna Rose, The Oregonian
This is a sparely written book, floating on its metaphors, a delicate and simple story, beautifully told."
--Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review
After Dark is a streamlined, hushed ensemble piece built on the notion that very late at night, after the lamps of logic have been snuffed and rationality has shut its eyes, life on earth becomes boundariless and blurred . . . Standing above the common gloom, Murakami detects phosphorescence everywhere, but chiefly in the auras around people, which glow brightest at night and when combined."
--Margaret Hillenbrand, Financial Times
[Murakami's] flair for making dialogue bloom from inhospitable soil, the way he can magic a memorable encounter out of thin air, and his conviction that there is salvation to be found in the company of strangers--all these familiar Murakami traits animate the pages of the novel and give it the writer's special stamp. Yet in After Dark this signature style seems to have found itself a fresher groove . . . It almost asks to be devoured by insomniacs in a single all-night sitting."
--Julie Wittes Schlack, The Boston Globe
After Dark is a gripping dream [in which] Murakami reveals the darkness in which his characters' amorphous fears flourish. But so too does their poignant and brave willingness to rebirth themselves every day . . . In Murakami's hands, hope is nothing more nor less than a deep, cleansing breath."
--Ed Siegel, The Boston Phoenix
The world [Murakami] creates--of fast-food restaurants and strange hotels, people dying (almost literally) to make connections but able to do so only in fits and starts--continues to be one of the most intoxicating around. His knack for making the everyday exotic, and the elusive tangible, is as sharp as in his 'bigger' works, [just as] the middle ground he stakes can still make the earth move."
--Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
After Dark [is] hypnotically eerie, sometimes even funny, but most of all, it's [a book] that keeps ratcheting up the suspense . . . Through his short, enigmatic chapters, Murakami--aided by Jay Rubin's perfectly pitched English--manages to convey something of the interconnectedness of the city and its constant air of expectancy and danger."
--Charles Taylor, Newsday
"In After Dark, night seems to be where Murakami was headed all along, a place where the ordinary acts that he has written of so evocatively stand out against the velvety bas relief of the Tokyo night, a backdrop that gives these acts both danger and wonder . . . He has a natural curiosity about people, a belief that they contain wonders, perhaps none so great as the capacity for human connection."
--Kirkus, starred review
" How could he weave all the people and their stories together?? "
— à¤à¥à¤¸à¤¾à¤², 2/3/2014" If you like Murakami's way of write you will find a light novel with all his habitual ingredients: characters who meet and cross paths, stories that go from the real to the oniric world and then come back, and music putting a soundtrack. And I enjoyed the book, but it lack something, it's as if Murakami had not told the whole story. "
— Syl, 1/11/2014" A thoroughly satisfying and engrossing binge read. I'm gonna read it again right now. "
— duo-la, 1/1/2014" Murakami is one of my all-time favorite authors and I still think this book is rather mediochre. The plot idea is clever (as usual) and the elements of creepiness are just right, but overall the prose is just not that great. "
— Stacy, 12/23/2013" "...people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the actual maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy book, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. The fire isn't thinking. 'oh, this is Kant'...To the fire they're nothing but scraps of paper. It's the exact same thing. Important memories, not so important memories, totally useless memories: there's no distinction - they're all just fuel." (pp 168/9) "
— Prakash, 12/22/2013" This was my first book by Murakami, It was interesting and wierd, but I can't believe it was on the recommended list for the common core. I would NEVER teach this book to sophomores. In Utah, I could not get away with the sex scenes, the language, or the themes. "
— Janell, 12/18/2013" Murakami Never disappoints. Another great succinct read. "
— Lewis, 12/10/2013" Really a very awesome book. Undoubtedly Murakami-esque, but structurally and narratively very interesting. Definitely one of his more cohesive novellas. "
— Dane, 10/27/2013" I really enjoyed the characters in this book, and how it takes place all in one overnight setting, starting just before midnight. "
— Glenn, 12/10/2012" Interesting book, but I liked some of his others better. Won't give up on him yet, but I've found the stories to be hit or miss for level of interest. There is little closure with this author, but makes you think. "
— Courtney, 9/8/2012" Enjoyed the narrator's sharp descriptions, loved the characters; which Murakami did a terrific job at fleshing them out, and enjoyed the art house films & jazz music mentions, but it misses something crucial. Uncertain of what it is, but I found myself a bit unsatisfied after I was finished. "
— Mohammed, 6/1/2012" Excellent psychological writing from Murakami. "
— *Redacted*, 9/27/2011" Not my favorite Haruki Murakami book. I kept waiting for something more to happen... "
— Ben, 9/19/2011" I liked this one even better than 1Q84. More ordinary and yet more extraordinary for that. "
— Stacey, 8/22/2011" Very good short novella. Less weird than some of Murakami's other works but he captures the mood delioghtfully as always "
— Cory, 7/30/2011" A beautiful yet creepy tale of how nighttime changes our perspective of life... "
— Cesar, 7/17/2011" Murakami leave a few too many loose ends in this one for me to feel completely satisfied but it was still incredibly interesting. If you put together the referenced jazz music throughout the book you'll have a pretty solid playlist. "
— Amanda, 5/18/2011" It was pretty good. Not his best work. It leaves lots of unattached strings and makes you wonder. "
— Aliisa, 5/17/2011" I couldn't lay this book down. From the moment I started to read I completly got drawn in to the book. The characters are very intresting, the more you get to know about them, the more you will love them. "
— Bressa, 5/17/2011" not at all what I expected. fascinating. "
— Carolyn, 5/10/2011" Hasta ahora el libro de Murakami que más he disfrutado. Por momentos sentí que leía el guión de una película de David Lynch. "
— Adriana, 4/25/2011" Feeling like a partially completed novella, it lacks the interest and depth I normally find in his books. "
— Erin, 4/15/2011Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author of fiction and nonfiction works. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage topping the New York Times bestsellers list in 2014. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages. Murakami is the recipient of numerous awards, including the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.
Janet Song is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards and was named one of AudioFile magazine’s Best Voices of 2008. Recent audiobooks include Euna Lee’s The World is Bigger Now and Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls. She lives and works in Southern California as an actor on stage and screen.