01 Sep / After Dark by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin [in Bloomsbury Review]
The latest from one of Japan’s leading novelists is another signature piece in which the unexpected should be anticipated. It’s just before midnight and teenaged Mari reads a thick, unnamed book in a well-lit Denny’s in a not-so-nice part of town. In walks a student with a trombone who allegedly has met Mari before with Mari’s older sister.
In the course of the night that follows, Mari will find herself in a love motel helping a Chinese prostitute who has been brutalized by a late-working salaryman and quickly making friends with the motel manager and her staff. Meanwhile, Mari’s older sister, the gorgeous part-time model Eri, lies in a deep sleep from which she refuses to wake, in a room with an unplugged television that’s broadcasting a life of its own.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2007 (United States)