After Dark

London, United Kingdom: Vintage Publishing, 2008. Paperback. New. 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 pla ns to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned an d content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realise they've been acquainted through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon lea ves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be i nterrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese pro stitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Ch inese and requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfec t, too pure' to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required lev el. 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 a cross 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?