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After Dark
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Check link for latest rating. ( 184,327 ratings, 15,202 reviews)
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After Dark
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help.
Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal;
Reality bends all the more acutely with lack of sleep in this stunning new novel from the master of the surreal.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari, a 19-year-old student, sips her coffee and glances up from her book as a young man, a jazz trombonist named Takahashi, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. Takahashi has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, while Mari is content to read, smoke, and drink coffee until dawn. The two realise that they have met before through Mari's beautiful sister, Eri.
Takahashi soon leaves with a promise to return. Shortly afterwards, Mari is interrupted again, this time by Kaoru, a former professional wrestler who manages a love hotel called Alphaville. A Chinese prostitute has been assaulted by a client, and Kaoru, having heard that Mari speaks fluent Chinese, requests her help in communicating with the girl.
Meanwhile, Eri is at home, lying in a deep, unnaturally heavy sleep that is described as "too perfect, too pure" to be normal. She has been in this comatose state for two months, embodying the classic myth of a sleeping beauty. As the digital clock strikes midnight, a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, and a mysterious hint of life flickers across the unplugged television screen in her room.
Murakami, the acclaimed master of the surreal, returns with a stunning new novel where the familiar becomes unfamiliar after midnight, even to those who thrive in the small hours. After Dark takes us on a haunting journey through Tokyo's nocturnal landscape, into a world where time is distorted and reality is ever-shifting.
The novel explores themes of loneliness, disconnectedness, and the quiet, often unspoken struggles that occupy the night. Murakami weaves together seemingly disparate stories that converge in unexpected ways, creating a narrative that is both eerie and deeply human. As the characters navigate their nocturnal adventures, they encounter strange happenings that blur the lines between the real and the surreal, making the reader question what is a trick of the night and what lies beyond.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
After Dark is praised for being stylish and enigmatic, leaving a lingering memory. The novel is appreciated for its literary weight and grace, and it's described as a captivating, delicate, and wistful mood piece.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099506249
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 05 June 2008
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 24.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 160g
Pages: 208
About the Author
In 1978, Haruki Murakami was 29 and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year. More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, which turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon. His books became bestsellers, were translated into many languages, including English, and the door was thrown wide open to Murakami's unique and addictive fictional universe. Murakami writes with admirable discipline, producing ten pages a day, after which he runs ten kilometres (he began long-distance running in 1982 and has participated in numerous marathons and races), works on translations, and then reads, listens to records and cooks. His passions colour his non-fiction output, from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to Absolutely On Music, and they also seep into his novels and short stories, providing quotidian moments in his otherwise freewheeling flights of imaginative inquiry. In works such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Men Without Women, his distinctive blend of the mysterious and the everyday, of melancholy and humour, continues to enchant readers, ensuring Murakami's place as one of the world's most acclaimed and well-loved writers.
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