The 1,002nd Night

IN HARUKI Murakami’s 2014 short story “Scheherazade,” a man, Habara, is confined to his home for an unnamed reason. A female caretaker, or “support liaison,” whom he did not personally hire, visits him twice a week, providing his sole connection to the outside world. She brings him food and other necessary items, the books, magazines, and CDs he desires, and a selection of DVDs of her own choosing (with which he is not satisfied).

During her visits, they have sex—an activity Habara suspects is one of her formal duties. Afterward, the woman tells Habara a story. Her “strange and gripping” tales provide Habara a sense of relief. Murakami writes, “She captured her listener’s attention, tantalized him, drove him to ponder and speculate, and then, in the end, gave him precisely what he’d been