AFTER DARK
Haruki Murakami
Knopf
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0307265838
ISBN-13: 9780307265838

In a suburban home in Japan, Eri Asai, a young model and college student, is sleeping --- and has been doing so for two months. We watch her sleep peacefully, yet inexplicably, in an almost empty room in her parents' house.

Strange things then begin to happen: an unplugged television comes on and the screen shows a solitary man in a bare room with a clear mask over his face. He seems to be watching Eri as she sleeps. Can he really see her? Is she dreaming about him? And what are we to think when she disappears from her bedroom and is trapped in the room on the TV screen?

As we ponder this puzzle, so too does Eri's younger sister. Unable to sleep, Mari has fled the house to seek solitude in the night of the city. What she finds is violence and compassion, art and work. Her journey --- which brings her into contact with city dwellers who are awake while most people are asleep --- may provide her with both rest and peace.

AFTER DARK, the latest novel from Haruki Murakami, is stylistically similar to his other many notable works (KAFKA ON THE SHORE, THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE) --- a sort of Japanese magical realism and lyricism verging on surrealism or fantasy.

During her night in the city, Mari first meets Tetsuya Takahashi, a young musician who claims to have met her before when they were brought together on a double date with Mari's sister and Takahashi's friend. Mari and Takahashi subtly flirt over coffee until he heads off to late-night band practice, leaving her alone in the restaurant again. But soon after his departure, a woman named Kaoru comes in looking for Mari. Kaoru runs a "love hotel," where a Chinese prostitute has just been beaten and robbed but speaks no Japanese. She calls Takahashi for help, and he tells her he just left Mari who, coincidentally, speaks Chinese. With this, Mari is drawn into the world of the hotel and the lives of the people who work and stay there.

While Mari moves through the night, we follow her and also return back to her house to watch Eri in her sleep. As the story unfolds, we are left to unravel the connection between the individual who beat the prostitute and Eri. Is he the man in the bare room? By the end of this short novel, Mari is safely back home and has plans to leave Japan to study in China --- but her sister is still in a deep sleep. Mari is undeniably altered, learning about herself and her city and finding a new love for the sister from whom she has felt emotionally estranged for so long.

AFTER DARK is delicate and engaging, despite some scenes that would seem right at home in a David Lynch film. It is a mysterious and odd novel about boundaries, both physical and emotional, and daring to cross them. Think of this as an elegant Japanese version of the 1985 Martin Scorsese film After Hours, in which Griffin Dunne found himself woefully out of his comfort zone when he stayed up all night in Soho meeting a cast of strange and sometimes scary characters. Feeling odd, sad and lonely, Mari also navigates the night in a seedy unfamiliar neighborhood populated by interesting individuals.

AFTER DARK is another compelling and weird story from one of Japan's most original writers. Though not a typical beach read, it definitely should be on your summer reading list.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

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