After Dark by Haruki Murakami [Review]

This is perhaps one of Haruki Murakami’s shorter works, but I personally found After Dark to be exactly the length it needs to be, drawing you in to a tale that bridges the worlds between the very mundane and more fantastical events that can only happen in the dead of night when the city’s denizens are deep asleep. In true Murakami fashion the author weaves together an engagingly written book from the stories of two disparate characters and the impact their interactions with the world around them come to have on the other’s life in the early morning hours of Tokyo. However it should be noted there are depictions of assault against sex workers in this novel, and so is due a trigger warning. Also if you’re looking for some sort of satisfactory resolution, you won’t find it written here. After Dark is more a meditation on the different states of loneliness that human beings can encounter throughout their existence. And that it is only by chance they experience some forms and not others. Despite the more surreal qualities of the book, the dialogue and narrative is kept simple, allowing the reader to be carried effortlessly along as Murakami explores loneliness in its many facets. Definitely worth the read.