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after the quake

by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator)

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 12,045 ratings · 840 reviews

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.

An electronics salesman who has...more

Paperback, 147 pages

Published May 13th 2003 by Vintage (first published 1999)

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Mar 25, 2011 mahatma rated it 4 of 5 stars

bila kemaren ulil mendapat kiriman bom yang dibungkus sebagai kiriman buku, maka kemaren pula saya memulai baca buku murakami haruki tentang bungkusan yang gak jelas apa isinya.

judul cerpen pertama dalam buku ini adalah UFO DI KUSHINO.
wong mau menulis kisah tentang jepang pasca gempa kobe 1995 kok malah bicara tentang UFO?

ini kisah seorang lelaki yang ditinggal pergi istrinya seusai gempa di kobe.
si istri setelah kejadian gempa seperti kehilangan dirinya, kerjaannya tiap hari hanyalah menonton t...more

8 likes · like · see review

Dec 05, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 version)

Shelves: ex-1001

I am not sure why but this collection of six short stories that happened after the Kobe earthquake just did not impress me as much as his Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman did last month. Maybe because five out of the six stories have no fantasy ingredient like the talking cat, leeches falling from the sky, a TV zooming automatically at the sleeping you or the actual appearance of a UFO. These 6 short stories are mostly pure drama and the usual disappearance, leaving without saying goodbye or saying...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Asma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Asma by: Pellerin

Shelves: 52-2012

Tales combine fables, dreams, realism. Those seem the way to understand in part overwhelming, irrational events such as the January 1995 Kobe earthquake that destroyed the city. Each unique story of After the Quake restores broken human connections. Even characters distant from its epicenter felt traumatized and their lives psychologically disoriented by its televised images and by its reminder of relations and friends at the site. 'UFO in Kushiro' connects a recently divorced man (because of th...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2007 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

My favorite Murakami short story of all time is "The Kidney Shaped Stone That Moves Everyday." So when I realized halfway through the last story in After the Quake that the main character was the same one from "Kidney Shaped Stone," it was as if the planets had aligned, the clouds parted and a single shaft of sunlight shot down to bathe me in a golden glow; everything was perfect in the universe. And of course "Honey Pie" is now my second favorite Murakami story of all time.

It's a rare writer t...more

17 likes · like · see review

Apr 01, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: murakami fans and 1001 book readers

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 book and my friend Nick

Shelves: japanese-literature, read-in-2011, 1001-books, bookcrossing-books

I didn't realise this book was a series of short stories until I opened it and started reading. Murakami presents another weird and wonderful view into his world but this time focusing on the the way that a group of fictional characters were affected by the Kobe earthquake. All of these stories have their own merits but my favourite was probably Super-Frog saves Tokyo. I love Murakami although I have to say that this was not my favourite book by him as these stories don't really give him much of...more

10 likes · like · see review

Mar 07, 2009 C. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to C. by: Modern and Contemporary Literature

Shelves: i-wish-i-own, short-stories, studied, to-be-re-read, 2009

I don't get Murakami. In terms of form and style, the stories in this collection are consistently clichéd and unoriginal. Over and over again he uses the same tired old technique: open the story with a scene set in the present and then go back and give a brief description of the characters' life stories, what brought them here, and so on before returning to the present and continuing the story. It is dull, dull, dull. The language he uses is simplistic and unsophisticated. It is straightforward...more

11 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2007 Luke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I don't know how Haruki Murakami deals with the pressure of being my favorite writer. Does he realize what kind of pedestal I've place him on? Does it keep him up at night? I'm forever waiting to be disappointed by one of his books--I mean, the guy can't be PERFECT, can he? Well it hasn't happened yet.

This slim little volume of short stories (only six of them in all), all loosely connected to the 1995 Kobe earthquake, didn't garner as much critical acclaim as some of Murakami's other books. And...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Matthew Snope rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is worth getting your grubby hands on just for the amazing short story "landscape with flatiron". For fuck's sake this guy can write. Sometimes some of his stuff is more appealing to me than others, but I'm blown away overall at his talent and prolificness. I'm also finding myself more drawn to shorter stories lately, having less patience for the modern grand master narrative of the epic novel, preferring instead the more fragmented, shorter, leaner & meaner postmodern narrative in the...more

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Aug 07, 2008 W.B. rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who listen to nighcrawlers

Recommended to W.B. by: Da Hype

My first post-downsizing read and my first Murakami.

It was okay.

Not revelatory. There were some nice passages, only one in the whole book I really wanted to share, but I can't remember it literatim so won't butcher it.

Maybe because the expectation was so high because of the GR hype, I expected epiphanies falling like frogs in Magnolia.

This is a book of short fiction. Maybe the novel is his real form.

It was about one cut above Granta, and if you read Granta you know that's not saying a lot.

If you...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 12, 2008 Seth Hahne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay yeah, so really on a Murakami kick here. As I write this I'm also in the opening throes of his Norwegian Wood. In any case, After the Quake did nothing to halt my appreciation for his work. Despite the fact that many of his themes are here regurgitated. It's true, the flow of love for Haruki Murakami continues unabated.

That's not to say that there aren't high and low points in the collection of short stories. In fact a couple of the stories are merely Good.

In any case, in the wake of the Ko...more Okay yeah, so really on a Murakami kick here. As I write this I'm also in the opening throes of his Norwegian Wood. In any case, After the Quake did nothing to halt my appreciation for his work. Despite the fact that many of his themes are here regurgitated. It's true, the flow of love for Haruki Murakami continues unabated.

That's not to say that there aren't high and low points in the collection of short stories. In fact a couple of the stories are merely Good.

In any case, in the wake of the Kobe Earthquake and Sarin gas attacks in 1995 and drafting on the slipstream of the amazing Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , Murakami penned each of the shorts in the volume as some sort of response to the titular disaster. Each story is written in the third person (an uncommon POV for Murakami) and deals with the lives and souls of characters in the days and months succeeding the destruction of the city.

The book's opener "UFO in Kushiro" offers up a vignette that belongs thematically right next to works like Wind-Up Bird and Sputnik Sweetheart . An empty man, a shell since before his wife left him, runs an errand that takes him to far away Hokkaido, where he may or may not just happen to run into his soul. Being familiar with Murakami by this point, the story felt comfortable and lived-in, but I have to imagine that it would be rather abrupt for first-time Murakami readers.

The second piece, "Landscape with Flatiron," presents another level of tension (as the first story leaves the reader perhaps slightly on edge) and continues to draw the reader into the hollow lives of people who seem to see just beyond the world we inhabit. "All God's Children Can Dance" was my least favourite of of the tales and features a a man deeply unsure of his place in the world, struggling with his own genetic fallacy, having been told that he was the Son of God from his youth and having a tremendous penis as his only evidence of this supposition. "Thailand" was enjoyable and follows a woman vacationing in Thailand around as she finds answers to spiritual questions she did not know she had.

Unquestionably my favourites in the collection are the final two offerings: "Super Frog Saves Tokyo" and "Honey Pie." The former opens with a bank employee coming home to find a man-sized frog waiting to speak with him about important matters—the prevention of imminent doom to the city of Tokyo. This was absolutely a joy to read. The latter is utterly pleasant and, in a way, in so doing defies expectations. Murakami is many things and his genius is sometimes unpredictable, but I was shocked by how... pleasant... this tale was.

When all is done, said, and forgotten, Murakami's book will still be about men and women in this cold world who are shaken from their stupor and confronted with the opportunity to fill their hollowed-out lives with that undetected mass that had been missing from them the entire time. The Kobe earthquake acts as a catalyst for each of them, forcing self-evaluation, even when it comes in forms that cannot be recognized as self-evaluation.

Awesome little book.(less)

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Nov 26, 2007 Sabrina rated it 2 of 5 stars

he stories are succinct, symbolic, and allegorical. They're easy to read, but far from brilliant and earth-shatteringly novel. Many times, I felt as if I were reading fanfiction.

UFO in Kushiro:
It had a promising beginning, but the ending disappointed. I almost felt as if I were reading mediocre fanfiction.

Landscape with Flatiron:
The Jack London bit is apocryphal, sadly! London conceded to charges of plagiarism. He evidently clipped plotlines out of magazines. Wow.

All God's Children Can Dance:
I w...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 21, 2012 Haaze rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-japanese, literature-21st-century

A very interesting read being my first Murakami book. The stories are very well written with an amazing ability to pull the reader into the story. One aspect that I find perplexing is how Murakami paints images of the border line between reality and fantasy. These leave the reader suspended in a strange sense of fate and skepticism. Is it reality or fantasy? Regardless, the stories definitely makes one think about the characters and the situations they are embedded in. I found this collection to...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 18, 2011 Maren rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book seems to merit another reading after the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Murakami wrote this volume of short stories after the Kobe quake in 1995. Murakami is always astonishing. He effortlessly blends the magical with the real the deeply psychological with the mundane. These short stories are lovely crafted little gems. The people in the stories are often experiencing a seismic shift of some sort, not necessarily a literal one. The first time I read the book I read them all in...more

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Nov 19, 2007 Clare rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book of short stories was the first I'd read by Murakami. I read it because I was going to see the 'play of the book' at Berkeley Rep. I liked the book alot. It was low key and gentle. Lots of character development and little overt 'action' - just the way I like my books!
The play/production was great! A great, minimalist set, and very imaginative with the way they translated book to stage. Actors would step in and out of role, moving from character to narrator and first to third person. Ver...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 02, 2008 Tara rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Elizabeth Euresti

Shelves: post-modern, short-stories

This was a fantastic collection of short stories set in Japan [mostly Tokyo] in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake. Most of the characters experience the quake distantly, as something happening to estranged relatives, ex-lovers, people on TV, but the occurence of the quake [or the event, rather, of them hearing of the quake] marks a turning point in each story, and the characters are pushed, either directly or indirectly, to confront their internal conflict and face down the idea of the earth...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Onmiskenbaar een Murakami, deze bundel met 6 korte verhalen. Ik proef de sfeer van De opwindvogelkronieken, van After Dark, Ten zuiden van de grens. Van de achtervolging in 'Gods kinderen dansen allemaal' via de jazzmuziek in 'Thailand' tot de driehoeksverhoudingen in ’Landschap met strijkijzer’ en ‘Honingkoekjes’. En dromen (of verbeelding) komen, geloof ik, in alle verhalen voor.

De aardbeving van 1995 in Kobe is de rode draad, speelt in alle zes verhalen een, overigens kleine, rol. Twee maand...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was great! A super quick read. I think my favorite story was the one about the giant frog that wants to save Tokyo from a killer worm. Seriously, how could you NOT like a story with that plot? I also thought the last story, 'Honey Pie,' was very sweet, and first two opening stories (can't remember the names of them right now--the first involved a guy delivering a strange box for a friend without knowing the contents; the second is about building bonfires on beaches) were very mysteriou...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Ileen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, scrittori-giapponesi

Ok, lo ammetto è stato uno shock. Io, abituata alla leggerezza pacata di Banana Yoshimoto, mi sono trovata sottosopra con Murakami. Haruki mi ha letteralmente preso a schiaffi. E io come una cretina sono stata lì a farmeli dare. La leggerezza della brezza marina contro l’impetuosità del vento di tramontana. Mi devo riprendere. Non che il Giappone debba essere necessariamente come Banana lo racconta, ma qualcosina della nippo-cultura l’ho studiata e non trovo verosimili i dialoghi tra perfetti sc...more Ok, lo ammetto è stato uno shock. Io, abituata alla leggerezza pacata di Banana Yoshimoto, mi sono trovata sottosopra con Murakami. Haruki mi ha letteralmente preso a schiaffi. E io come una cretina sono stata lì a farmeli dare. La leggerezza della brezza marina contro l’impetuosità del vento di tramontana. Mi devo riprendere. Non che il Giappone debba essere necessariamente come Banana lo racconta, ma qualcosina della nippo-cultura l’ho studiata e non trovo verosimili i dialoghi tra perfetti sconosciuti del primo racconto, sfrontati ed arroganti. E la volgarità? Che cavolo di giapponesi sono questi??? Ma senza fermarmi all’apparenza cerco di capire, un po’ più in profondità, chi sono questi personaggi con i quali ho a che fare. È chiaro che Murakami non scrive un romanzo, ma narra racconti. Quindi ci dovrà essere un filo rosso che li lega. In particolare questo libro, composto da sei racconti, ha come filo conduttore il terremoto di Kobe del 1955. Tutti i personaggi sono legati in qualche modo a tale tragedia. Nel primo racconto incontriamo Komura, un uomo abbandonato dalla moglie che lo ha lasciato cinque giorni dopo il terremoto. Loro vivono lontano dall’epicentro e non hanno amici o parenti in quella zona; eppure la moglie resta per cinque giorni immobile ed attonita davanti al teleschermo, prendendo poi la decisione di andarsene e divorziare. Non è difficile per il lettore immaginare che abbia avuto amante a Kobe e che lo stesso sia morto nel terremoto. Nel secondo racconto, un uomo di mezz’età, Miyake, rivela di avere una famiglia a Kobe anche se da anni vive in una piccola cittadina sul mare. Anche qui il lettore può solo immaginare cosa sia accaduto alla moglie ed ai figli di Miyake e si rende comprensiva la decisione (apparente) di suicidarsi. Nel terso, Yoshiya, venticinque anni, rimane solo a casa per qualche giorno poiché sua madre è in missione umanitaria a Kobe con il suo gruppo spirituale (sembra quasi cristianesimo ma non saprei…) per prestare aiuto. In uno di questi giorni il ragazzo incontra per caso per strada un uomo che, per via di un difetto ben visibile, potrebbe essere suo padre e si mette a seguirlo. Alla fine del viaggio Yoshiya troverà solo se stesso. Nel quarto racconto incontriamo Satsuki, una bella donna, una dottoressa affermata in viaggio a Bangkok per un convegno medico. Anche lei è legata a Kobe, il suo ex marito vive lì. O forse viveva, perché lei spera con tutto il cuore che sia rimasto schiacciato sotto le macerie. E poi, nel quinto, arriva un Ranocchio gigante che vuole salvare Tokyo da un imminente terremoto, perché il Gran Lombrico è stato svegliato da quello di Kobe. Per farlo chiede aiuto a Katagiri, che lavora per la sezione recupero crediti di una banca, presentandosi a casa sua e chiedendo il suo aiuto. Ancora desso mi chiedo chi fosse Katagiri… se il simpatico coprotagonista di una (disgustosa) storiella per bambini oppure un tossicodipendente in fase di astinenza (e non vi spiego il perché). Per ultimi incontriamo Sayoko, Kan e Junpei. Sayoko e Kan sono stati sposati ed hanno avuto la piccola Sara, ma il loro matrimonio è finito nonostante i loro rapporti continuino. Junpei è un secondo padre per Sara, alla quale ama raccontare storie inventate sul momento. È laureato in Letteratura e da quando i suoi genitori lo hanno scoperto, non si parlano. Nemmeno il terremoto di Kobe (dove vivono i genitori di Junpei) li muoverà da questo silenzio astioso in cui si sono rinchiusi. Ma in questo ultimo racconto il terremoto è davvero solo una macchiolina sullo sfondo. La storia è tutt’altra.

Lo confesso, me lo sono divorato in meno di 4 ore, non che sia un mattone ma proprio proprio non ho resistito. Non mi sono ancora fatta un’idea sul significato di questo libro, ma qualche riflessione ha già preso piede. Effettivamente, terremoto a parte, un filo rosso questi racconti ce l’hanno: è il bisogno di sentirsi amati, la costane ricerca della propria gratificazione sentimentale nell’altro, che può essere una moglie, un nuovo compagno, un padre, una madre, etc… Questo bisogno impellente nasce quasi sempre dall’abbandono o dall’insoddisfazione, dalla prova evidente che chi ci è accanto non ci apprezza o non ci ama come vorremmo. Murakami si spinge oltre e descrive le conseguenze di queste ricerche, che possono fruttare o meno. C’è chi non ha paura di trovare la gratificazione in una persona diversa, dopo essere stati abbandonati, chi invece non riesce ad affrontare una nuova situazione e chi alla fine decide che forse non gli importa più di tanto. C’è chi combatte l’abbandono con l’odio e chi combatte l’ingratitudine con la bontà. Ognuno sembra trovare la propria dimensione in questo libro, a parte il lettore, che non sa più da che parte è girato. Un po’ come me che ho cominciato questo libricino sbraitando contro un autore che mi prendeva letteralmente a schiaffi e adesso lo chiudo con il sorriso stampato in faccia. Che dire, non è Banana, è diverso. Non è così denso, è più velato, ma altrettanto profondo. È meno giapponese, ma più diretto. È più discorsivo, meno introspettivo, ma lascia al lettore la possibilità di immaginarsi un perché, un come andrà a finire. Ho già capito che ne comprerò altri!!
(less)

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Mar 12, 2013 Stephanie "Jedigal" rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, short-stories

A short collection of short stories, you'll fly through these. Usually I like to make a short comment about each story in a short story collection, but my individual impressions were too undefined to express easily.

I would have read this anyway, as part of the 1001 BYMRBYD list, but if I had picked it out at the store randomly, I think I would have been disappointed at the very tangential way the linking thread (the 1995 Kobe earthquake) was incorporated in each of these 6 stories. That said, t...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Melissa He rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 12th-grade-advisory

I found an online archive of stories written by Haruki Murakami, an author I've heard about from my classmates, and I decided to take a peek because I was curious.

One of the stories, Super-Frog Saves Tokyo, particularly caught my eye. The story is exactly what the title entails: a giant frog approaches the main character and proposes a plan to save Tokyo from some impending destruction. Simple as that. I'm not sure why this story managed to keep me so fascinated; perhaps it's because the plot is...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Tom Marcinko rated it 5 of 5 stars

Short stories; my first exposure to this writer. Picked to get myself into the mood for our Japan trip.

“Landscape with Flatiron”
“…there’s such a thing as a way of living that’s guided by the way a person’s going to die.”

“All God’s Children Can Dance”
The shrill witch-hunter voices of the showbiz correspondents…
…if it was all right for God to test man, why was it wrong for man to test God?

“Thailand”
“No, Doctor. It was not fortune-telling. Just as you treat people’s bodies, she treats people’s spir...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Pete Young rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For some enigmatic reason Murakami wanted this collection’s English title to be devoid of capital letters and all in lower case. The six stories are all set in February 1995, a month after the devastation of the Kobe earthquake (and a month before the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that Murakami explored in Underground), and while the characters he writes about were not directly affected by the earthquake it nevertheless created some other far-reaching and more personal seismic shifts. Thi...more

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Jul 27, 2012 may dy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like the stories in "after the quake" for several reasons, some of them not related in any way to being literary. I came across this collection when I was taking up my creative arts elective in fiction writing and our instructor introduced to us "super frog saves tokyo".
"I showed it to you guys because I wanted to know what you think," our instructor said. Whether he was okay or pleased with our insights, I wouldn't know. He was probably vexed.
I gave the collection four stars because, while...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japan, mystery, weird-fiction

WOW. I was blown away by how awesome this volume was. My favorite piece for sure was Super-Frog Saves Tokyo for sure, but all were wonderful (except maybe the last one which was only pretty good). They all exude this eerie, uncertainly supernatural atmosphere. Motifs/themes of urban alienation, spooky mysticism, sexuality and impotence (Japanese sexuality btw), failed personal relationships and existential confusion are present. The writing style is short and simple, but conveys a lot of informa...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Maharet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good, murakami-haruki, short-stories

Sono stata indecisa fino alla fine tra tre o quattro stelle: ne ho date quattro solo perché Murakami è sempre Murakami e il suo stile è straordinario.
Ma nessuno dei racconti, a parte “Thailandia”, mi ha particolarmente colpito: troppo brevi, troppo abbozzati, troppo poco approfonditi.
E pensare che ognuno di essi, ampliato e modificato a dovere, potrebbe essere un grande romanzo breve o almeno un racconto lungo di spessore.
Il filo conduttore di queste sei storie è il terremoto di Kobe del 1995: n...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Marco Marino rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un casuale incontro

Sinceramente non so di preciso cosa sto provando, sono appena uscito da quel mondo e mi sento spaesato, ho l’anima in subbuglio.
Sono pieno di domande...

Può un incontro casuale cambiare la nostra vita?

In tutti e sei i racconti c’è un incontro, reale o surreale, che muta drasticamente l’avvenire dei protagonisti, gente comune, facilmente confondibile per le strade affollate del Giappone.

Non v’è mai capitato quando magari siete in coda sulla strada di casa o camminate per...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Stephanie W rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, japanese, short-stories

After the Quake was a quick read. I started it yesterday and in one afternoon, finished the entire book. It's a collection of short stories, all vaguely related to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It has some weak point, but also some very very strong stories that I found myself swallowed by with the ethereal quality of most of Murakami's work. These were, specifically, "Landscape with Flatiron" and "Superfrog Saves Tokyo".

The style is not standard Murakami. In fact, he says (speaking through a charac...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Nikole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Prior to listening to After the Quake, I hadn't bothered to research this particular title. I had already read two Murakami novels, enjoyed them in varying degrees and developed a preconceived idea of what to expect from this book...and therefore was quite shocked to discover that After the Quake is not a novel but a collection of six short stories which were not connected except they all took place in the days and months after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan.

I enjoyed the first two stories i...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not one of my favorite Murakami books, but very well-written, short and sweet.

The reason why I like Haruki Murakami so much is because he has this way of (re)shaping the mundane into something I can't get enough of. Of course in this format he doesn't really go in depth, but I think that's kind of the point; we're getting snapshots of the lives of people around the time of the Kobe earthquake in 1995. Some were deeply affected; others not so much. Life goes on after tragedy, for better or worse,...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

don't be fooled by this little book; after the quake contains some of murakami's most profound work. it was one of the few works of his i had left to read and lo and behold, i was coming around to it right as the earthquake and consequent tsunami occurred. since this was written in the aftermath of the kobe earthquake, i figure it would give me some insight into not only murakami's mind about such things, but the psyche of the japanese in general, much like his nonfiction book underground. if yo...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
La Stamberga dei ...: Tutti i figli di Dio danzano di Haruki Murakami	1	11	Apr 11, 2013 05:26am
Japanese Literature: Responses	1	22	Feb 22, 2012 11:30am
fiction files redux: super frog saves tokyo	14	31	Jan 16, 2012 06:17am

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About Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'.

Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by American writers, such as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and he is often disting...more

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Books by Haruki Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

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Trivia About after the quake

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Quotes from after the quake

“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.” — 249 people liked it

“When the fire goes out, you'll start feeling the cold. You'll wake up whether you want to or not.” — 86 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11299.after_the_quake?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320457747l/11299.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11299.after_the_quake?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]after the quake by Haruki Murakami[/url]

after the quake

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