After Dark Book

The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man a musician intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realise they've been acquainted through Eri Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese and requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep heavy sleep that is 'too perfect too pure' to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporfic state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth - a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible a hint of life flickers across the TV screen though the television's plug has been pulled.Murakami acclaimed master of the surreal returns with a stunning new novel where the familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight even to those that thrive in small hours. With "After Dark" we journey beyond the twilight strange nocturnal happenings or a trick of the night?