After Dark

By Haruki Murakami and Jay Rubin

A short, sleek novel of encounters set in the witching hours of Tokyo between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.

At its center are two sisters: Yuri, a fashion model sleeping her way into oblivion; and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny’s into lives radically alien to her own: those of a jazz trombonist who claims they’ve met before; a burly female “love hotel” manager and her maidstaff; and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These “night people” are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Yuri’s slumber—mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime—will either restore or annihilate her.

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—the interplay between self-expression and understanding, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307370488

Reviews for After Dark

[deaconbernie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Afterr my first encounter with a Phillip Margolin, this is a real disappointment. The plot meanders. The characters are unrealistic and not believable. The ending seems as it was added as an afterthought. I hope I find future works to be more rewarding.

[gatorhater · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great mystery/thriller that keeps you turning the pages, had a hard time taking a break. The story line is very well written, with a ending that will get you scratching your head.

[jeroenvandorp · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don't particularly think much of this book. It's a nice and quick read and well worth your time. Reason I add it to my library is because I got struck by the cover of the particular (Dutch) edition I own. A quick check confirmed what I suspected, the illustrator drew Linda Ronstadt as she appears on "Hasten Down The Wind".

[mrshillreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book...I couldn't stop reading it...you know, one of those I stay up late to read even though I know I will regret it the next day!

[meroof30 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Matthew Reynolds is one of the best criminal lawyers in America, and he hates the death penalty. His life's work is devoted to saving his clients from death by state. He loves Abigail Griffin and ends up defending her on a trumped up murder rap. The ending is quite surprising.

[lisa_emily_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have never read any Murakami's books, but I became obssessed with the need to read After, Dark when I read a review. It was worth the hunt. What struck me most is the point of view within the book. The reader is a "neutral ouside witness" spoken to by a comforting, semi-omniscent speaker. We see it as though we are looking through the camera lens, swooping down on the characters' actions and conversations. Most of what we do learn about the characters are revealed by themselves in conversation. All these little notices cannot convey the pleasure of reading the novel. The language is simple but not simplistic and the pacing moves ahead with out feeling rushed. Most importantly, the characters are enjoyable to read, yet they maintain their mystery. After Dark, I found, is a pretty good novel to start off your summer reading.

[aerodynamics_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

'After Dark' is a disappointment. Judging from the other reviews I've read, most readers find this novel enticing in what it lacks. I've always appreciated an artist who can get out of the way of his story, allow subtext to remain subtext, and encourage the reader to take an active role in the construction of the dream-world of the book. However, 'After Dark' strikes me as the unfortunate case in which less is, in fact, less.This is less a novel then a collection of beginnings. Maybe it should be used as a teaching device in writers' workshops; I'm sure that some enterprising artist could fashion compelling conclusions for these threads of story.Much has been written about Murakami's unique approach to storytelling, and I will grant that the best elements of his work are the most elusive. This being the case, the best point of reference for any critique of Murikami is Murakami himself. 'After Dark' just doesn't stand up to Murakami.

[marzia22_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very sparse and tense novel set in Tokyo in one night between midnight and dawn.

[sgtcat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting. This felt a lot more cohesive and polished than some of the other stuff I've read by Murakami.

I wish I could learn more about the characters, but it was interesting to have this fleeting glimpse into other people's lives and to wonder what might become of them. I also enjoy how Murakami engages with complicated aspects of life through dialogue, because it seems like that's how we should but rarely do solve our own issues.

I'll wind up reading this book again because I feel like there's a lot that I'm missing and because it was just very enjoyable.

[judithann_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not sure what to think of this book. The night-in-a-big-city setting was intriguing and I liked the story of Mari and her encounters in the middle of the night. However, I did not "get" the sister-story. Or was there nothing to get? It was all very mysterious.Some reviews have suggested that this is only half a book, maybe the rest is still to follow. If so, that would make more sense to me.

[hotchk155 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book describes events which unfold during the small hours of a single night in a city; Two acquaintances meet in a cafe. A client beats up a prostitute. A sleeping girl teleports into a world behind a television screen. The events are both real and surreal, the connections between them sometimes just hinted at and (as Murakami is wont to do) often left hanging unexplained at the end of the story. It's compelling and immersive, with some chapters written as the voice of a dismebodied voyeur - a floating viewpoint - inside the scene, making this an oddly visual read. The shorter format stands out from the other Murakami books I have read, but his staples are here - the characters are solid, living, believable yet somehow detached. The writing flows with a simple beauty. I wouldn't say this measures up to the best of what Murakami can do, but it certainly aint bad.

[lauriemk_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Strange, like many of Murakami's books, and a little darker than some. I liked this a lot, but I prefer Murakami when he is a little more whimsical, like in A Wild Sheep Chase.

[fieldnotes_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

If you were to take one of Haruki Murakami's riveting, longer and more experimental works and put it into a magical chamber that would drain it of all color, odor and texture, while simultaneously compressing it to one third of its original size by removing all of its emotional charge and interpresonal tension you might end up with something like "After Dark." And if you could mist the air with some amnesia-inducing claminess, you'd be even closer.This is an exercise in atmospherics: in mood setting. It feels like a draft or a sketch. By Murakami's standards it feels incomplete, uninvested, undeveloped and pat. Head towards his longer fiction and if you like it, don't come here looking for more of the same.

[yvonnekins · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

am i just picking all the wrong books by him to try or is he just not the author for me? i don't know. i didn't like this. nothing happened. the characters were boring at best and weak at worst. still not a fan of how he writes women at all. i'm just sitting here like... what was the point?

[jacey25 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book drew me deeper and deeper starting with the back cover. I picked this up in the train station and was finished by the day's end before I had even gotten home. I craved more; and at first was wondering about the seeming lack of resolution. This was my first Murakami experience- I later learned he was infamous for ambiguous endings that let the reader fill in the details. It was such a wonderful book ; the characters all became real for me within a few pages of reading even the "minor" characters. Really reccomended

[ivan0frade · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not the best book of Murakami. It contains the usual elements of the author's style: characteristic descriptions and some "strange" situations in realistic circunstances... but something is missing, the special touch of his other novels, like the "Wind-up bird chronicle" or "Kafka on the shore".Good for Murakami's fans, but i wouldn't recommend it as introductory reading for new comers. Luckily, it is short, so the reader doesn't get tired even when the story is not moving forward too much.

[moonglade_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short and interesting read. The tale follows the events of several city people in the course of a single night, focusing primarily on two sisters and their relationship between one another. Murakami's narrator seems to be a sort of hybrid between the narrator of the "Twilight Zone" and the commentator heard on National Geographic. The narrative style often times takes on a sort of literary "video camera" where Murakami describes a scene as one would see it on a television. It is in this way that he portrays each character's individual story and how these stories weave and become a component of the macrocosm of their city. Typical of Murakami, the tale has its trademark random supernatural elements, murky central conflict, and unsatisfying denouement. But, then again, these are things that I have come to expect from his novels.

[altheaann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A dreamlike book, written extremely visually, almost like a screenplay, and of an equivalent length. (short)

Taking place over the course of one night in Tokyo, it follows a young woman, Mari, who has decided to stay out all night. A young man, Tetsuya, sees her sitting in a coffeeshop and introduces himself, reminding her that he met her once, on a double-date with Mari's sister. From this chance encounter, Murakami draws out an enigmatic but insightful glimpse into the lives and dramas of Tokyo's late night denizens, from workers at love hotels and late-night offices to mobsters and others... intercut with scenes of Mari's beautiful model sister, asleep but seemingly drawn into a mysterious and sinister place.

Not, perhaps, a major work, but very well done.

[thioviolight · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is always such a pleasure to read Murakami! This isn't one of my favorites, but I enjoyed the book a lot anyway. Of the things I liked most about this one are the conversations and how the characters' personalities come through in the dialogue.

[petterw_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first encounter with Murakami. And Japanese literature for that matter. It was an exciting read, not very eventful but still incredably visual, almost like a movie. Murakami writes for all the senses - just the fact that he is referring to music in the different venues is an amazing effect. The novel takes place one night in Tokyo, the characters are all young and lonely and at the outset with a lot of distance to the world and to other people. The novel is never boring even though very little happens because you feel for the characters however distant they are. I am going to give other novels by Murakami a try.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sisters Eri and Mari are the focus of this novel. Eri spends the entire novel sleeping. Mari, on the other hand, wanders through the dangerous side of Tokyo, meeting up with a musician, a “love hotel” manager, and a Chinese prostitute. The usual Murakami, which is to say very strange.

[bookish59 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very readable but seriously I don't know what to make of this unusual novel. But something about it compels me read another of Murakami's novels.

[voluntaryist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my least favorite of the Murakami books I have read so far, but it is still an enjoyable read. The chapters centering around the girl sleeping in the room read like scenes from a David Lynch film.

[macha_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a rather slight novel from Murakami, but still interesting. it's basically a script for a Noirish movie, expressed in prose. the characters are still developing (and all named for once), but their connections within are all new. ultimately not a lot happens, it's a point of change, over only one night, and that change in their outlooks is latent, hardly expressed, and still possibly temporary: we can't be sure when morning dawns. Duke Ellington does make a good soundtrack for the movie, as the author hints, if you're so inclined.

[ericj4dixon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The concept of covering the occurrences,random happenings and intersections between lives in one tokyo night is interesting, but this novel is not as fully formed as other work I have read by Murakami. I do, however, enjoy the random strands that Murakami offers the reader and also enjoy the fact that many of these scenarios are not fully played out and therefore are left to the reader to conclude. The novel concludes with many story strands left often to chance and future possibilities. All in all, an interesting read, but not up to the level of works like Hard-boiled Wonderland, or The Windup Bird Chronicle.

[paperbackpirate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After Dark centers around one night in the lives of 2 sisters, Eri and Mari. Mari seems hell bent on staying up all night reading in Denny's. She meets a guy on his way to band practice who knows her sister. He plays the trombone because the first time he heard the song Five Spot After Dark by Curtis Fuller he thought, "That's the instrument for me. The trombone and me: it was a meeting arranged by destiny."Meanwhile Eri is asleep in her home. She's been asleep for months and nobody can figure out why. But we see through an omnipresent narrator that something evil is watching her and perhaps controlling her through her television.I don't want to give any more of the story away because the journey is the joy of a Murakami story. I loved this book, but it does all take place in one night and was only 244 pages. I'm used to really long, super involved books by him.

[grizzly9anderson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover blurb put me more in mind of the movie Night On Earth than it probably should. And, of course, After Dark is pretty much nothing like that. Except that it is just a little. Murakami gives us a little glimpse into the lives of a few people who are loosely tied together with the events of a single night.As with all of Murakami's fiction there is an element of the fantastic to it. And even in small slices like these (I think After Dark is the shortest Murakami novel I've read, and the one with the most characters) he draws detailed and interesting sketches of the characters.I enjoyed it, and, as with his other novels, I feel like I've totally missed something. Some level of his writing I just can't quite grasp. This would probably make a great book club read just so you've got some other people to bounce ideas off of when you're done.

[aklnbrg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Murakami does some playing around with points of view (POV), which is always fun for me. He also roams around from one dimension of reality to another including some description of the techniques used to do this. I think that would be the most remarkable part of the book for me.The story is so dialog driven as to make the plot seem almost contrived. The ideas discussed by the characters are interesting and worthwhile. But most of it is not that remarkable. At the time of this review I have not reached the end of the book yet

[benjamin.duffy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If it's possible to be disappointed by a four-star book, I was by After Dark. It was a riveting read: fast, vivid, visceral, quickly and completely drawing me into its world. The point of view, expanding, contracting, and squeezing through cracks like some sort of liquid camera, was especially compelling. I can't speak or read Japanese, so I can't say whether or not the translation here is accurate, but it's a damn fine piece of English writing either way.

Halfway through this book, I fully expected to find it a five-star classic. Yet, by the time I finished it, I couldn't help wishing this story were somehow...more. The story built towards a crescendo that simply fizzled. No Stephen King- or Brandon Sanderson-esque explosive climax, nor even a Kazuo Ishiguro-style symphony of subtlety and restraint. Just kind of a wet plop. Not enough to ruin this excellent book, by any stretch; just a bit of a head-scratcher. Nonetheless, I'm definitely interested in reading more Murakami.

[narshkite · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

More a 3 1/2 star really. As usual for Murakami the writing is transcendent, and there are some compelling moments, but this seems to me to be half the book it should have been. There are good characters here that are glanced over. We want to get to know them, and then they are forgotten. One entire storyline seems to simply evaporate. I enjoyed this book in the moment, but was left feeling very unsatisfied.