After Dark (Murakami novel)

after dark
First edition (Japanese)
Author	Haruki Murakami
Original title	'アフターダーク Afutā Dāku
Translator	Jay Rubin
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Publisher	Kodansha (Japan) Harvill Press (UK) Alfred A. Knopf (US)
Publication date	2004
Published in English	May 2007
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	208
ISBN	0-307-26583-8 (US) 1-84655-047-5 (UK)
OCLC	81861840

After Dark (アフターダーク, Afutā Dāku) is a novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It was originally published in 2004.

Plot summary

Alienation, a recurring motif in the works of Murakami, is the central theme in this novel set in metropolitan Tokyo over the course of one night. Main characters include Mari Asai, a 19-year-old student, who is spending the night reading in a Denny's. There she meets Takahashi Tetsuya, a trombone-playing student who loves Curtis Fuller's "Five Spot After Dark" song on Blues-ette; Takahashi knows Mari's sister Eri, who he was once interested in, and insists that the group of them have hung out before. Meanwhile, Eri is in a deep sleep next to a television and seems to be haunted by a menacing figure.

Mari crosses ways with a retired female wrestler, Kaoru, now working as a manager in a love hotel called "Alphaville". Kaoru needs Mari to talk to a Chinese prostitute who had just been beaten in the love hotel by an office worker, Shirakawa. The group then tries to track down Shirakawa, and includes the Chinese Mafia group that 'owns' the prostitute.

Parts of the story take place in a world between reality and dream, and each chapter begins with an image of a clock depicting the passage of time throughout the night.

Structure

The story is broken down in small chapters of varying length. An added element of interest—and perhaps a post-modern reference—is the fact that the book has a 'real-time' timeline, beginning at the early hours of the night.

References and sources

Comprehensive After Dark resource page
New York Times review
The Guardian review
Strange Horizons review
After Dark at the Internet Book List

Works by Haruki Murakami

Titles listed in order originally published (dates of Japanese publication, English translation)

Novels	Hear the Wind Sing (1979, tr. 1987) Pinball, 1973 (1980, tr. 1985) A Wild Sheep Chase (1982, tr. 1989) Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985, tr. 1991) Norwegian Wood (1987, tr. 2000) Dance Dance Dance (1988, tr. 1994) South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992, tr. 2000) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–1995, tr. 1997) Sputnik Sweetheart (1999, tr. 2001) Kafka on the Shore (2002, tr. 2005) After Dark (2004, tr. 2007) 1Q84 (2009–2010, tr. 2011) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013, tr. 2014)

Story collections	The Elephant Vanishes (1980–1991, tr. 1993) after the quake (1999–2000, tr. 2002) Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (1980–2005, tr. 2006)

Non-fiction	Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche (1997–1998, tr. 2000) What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007, tr. 2008)

Other books	Birthday Stories (2002 anthology, tr. 2004) The Strange Library (2005 illustrated children's novella, tr. 2014)

Adaptations	Kaze no uta o kike (1980 film) The Elephant Vanishes (2003 play) Tony Takitani (2004 film) Norwegian Wood (2010 film)

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