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After Dark (アフターダーク Afutā Dāku), Murakami’s 12th work of fiction.
Published in Japanese in 2004
Translated into English by Jay Rubin in 2017.
Book Description:
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 different from 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 extraordinary, harmonious mastery.
BOA’s Favorite Quote:
“You know what I think?” she says. “that 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 fas as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed ém to the fire, they’re all just paper The fire isn’t thinking, ‘Oh, this is Kant,’ or Óh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,’ or ‘Nice tits,’ while it burns. 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.”
Cheapest form: Audible $7.49 (narrated by Janet Song)