The six stories in Haruki Murakami's mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami's characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.
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Five straight days she spent in front of the television, staring at crumbled banks and hospitals, whole blocks of stores in flames, several rail lines and expressways. UFO IN KUSHIRO
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@vintagebooks, 6 March 2003, paperback, 132 pages, bought from @bookshop_org_UK)
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I'm a huge fan of the author and am working my way through his back catalogue. I really enjoy his short fiction so After the Quake appealed to me. The stories are all connected in that they are set in the aftermath of a terrible earthquake but they can be read alone and are all quite different. As I've come to expect from his work, the stories are quite strange at times which is what I like about his work. The best stories are UFO in Kushiro and All God's Children Can Dance. I'd recommend this.
