Week 8: After the Quake

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After the Quake, by Haruki Murasaki

Murasaki is an eminent surrealist Japanese novelist, and I've had some of his books for years, and I mean to read them this year. So I got this particular book from the library; it's not one of the ones I own at all. This is a collection of short stories, all set soon after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The earthquake is nearly always kind of incidental to the stories here. There is a girl who likes bonfires. A man raised in a cult that calls him the son of God spends a day tailing someone he thinks might be his father. Another man meets a giant talking frog who asks for his help in saving Tokyo. That one was my favorite.

I will be reading more Murakami.

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