Haruki Murakami

Eyes mark the shape of the city The midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help. Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; it has lasted for two months. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00, a hint of life flickers across the television screen in her room, even though it's plug has been pulled out. Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

After Dark

アフターダーク

Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city. In the space of a single night, the lives of a diverse cast of Tokyo residents—models, prostitutes, mobsters, and musicians—collide in a world suspended between fantasy and reality. Utterly enchanting and infused with surrealism, After Dark is a thrilling account of the magical hours separating midnight from dawn.


maderinn⟢

It’s because l can pull the memories out of the drawers when I have to—the important ones and the useless ones—that I can go on living this nightmare of a life. I might 

 I can't take it any more, that I can't go on any more, but one way or another I get past that.

You know what I think? she says. That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. 

When I finish work and get into bed, I always think: let me not wake up. Let me just go on sleeping. ‘Cause then I wouldn't have to think about anything. 

The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on living alone down there in the darkness.

Lauri

Here, room a brand-new day is beginning. It could be a day like all the others, or it could be a day remarkable enough in many ways to remain in the memory. In either case, for now, for most people, it is a blank sheet of paper.

The crescent moon takes the form of a silent white monolith, a long-lost message floating in the western sky.

It's not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There's a shadowy middle ground. Recognising and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort.

Around us, cause and effect join hands, and synthesis and division maintain their equilibrium. Everything, finally, unfolded in a place resembling a deep, inaccessible fissure. Such places open secret entries into darkness in the interval between midnight and the time the sky glows light. None of our principles has any effort there. No one can predict when or where such abysses will swallow people, or where they will spit them out.

You know what I think? That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It's important to combine the two in just the right amount.

"Well, I think there has to be something like reincarnation. Or maybe I should say I'm scared to think there isn't. I can't understand nothingness. I can't understand it and I can't imagine it."

"Nothingness means there's absolutely nothing, so maybe there's no need to understand it or imagine it."

Is action merely the incidental product of thought, or is thought the consequential product of action?

He's got that baby-boomer toughness. Like Mick Jagger being called 'Sir' now—it's that generation, just hangin' in there. He doesn't do a lot of soul searching, but he learns his lesson.

ani jedno z toho nerobím a mala by som začať 

It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.'

She's carrying around so many problems all by herself she can't make any headway, and she's searching for help. She expresses those feelings by hurting herself.

I'm just stumbling around all the time in my own narrow little world.

"Looks like a totally ordinary guy," says Komugi.

"The ordinary-looking ones are the most dangerous," says Kaoru, rubbing her chin. "They carry around a shitload of stress."

It's just the way I'm made: I can't stand by and let a son-of-a-bitch like that pull shit like that.

Our viewpoint camera lingers in here for a while observing the restroom. Mari is no longer here. Neither is anyone else. Music continues to play from the ceiling speaker. A Hall and Oates song now: " I Can't Go for That." A closer look reveals that Maris image is still reflected in the mirror over the sink. The Mari in the mirror is looking from her side into this side. Her sombre gaze seems to be expecting some kind of occurrence. But there is no one on this side. Only her image is left in the Skylark's restroom mirror.

The rooms begins to darken . In the deepening darkness, "I Can't Go for That" continues to play.

The sound of the needle tracing the record groove. The languorous, sensual music of Duke Ellington. Music for the middle of the night.

He is one of those unidentifiable people who inhabit the city at night.

Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes and it's not the same as in daytime.

ter lido esse livro durante a semana na qual eu tive três dos piores episódios de insônia da minha vida toda foi realmente uma decisão! 

anna

11:56 pm to 6:52 am.. murakami sets the story within this precise window of time, just before midnight appears and ends right before the sun rises. i’ve always loved the night; there’s something about those late hours, when the world is quiet and half-asleep, that makes me feel more aware of everything. i’ve noticed how sleep deprivation strips away pretenses, my thoughts flow smoother, my emotions feel unfiltered, and After Dark captures that feeling perfectly. as i read, i felt like i was moving through the city with these characters, caught in that strange, in-between space where conversations feel both lonely and intimate. the way the story unravels mirrors that experience: slow, atmospheric, almost weightless, lingering in the spaces between reality and dream, where time slips away before you even realize it.

This book gently draws you into the quiet, early hours of the city, creating a tranquil yet unsettling atmosphere. Beneath its calm surface, it delves into profound themes sisterhood, family expectations, and fractured relationships woven with subtlety but deep resonance. I anticipated a comforting read, yet I found myself increasingly uneasy, gripped by a lingering sense of paranoia. The writing is captivating, pulling you in and leaving you with more questions than answers. Even after finishing, I can’t stop wondering about the fate of its characters.

div. ☆

There is something comforting about being awake at night; just you, the stars, and the millions of others going about their lives. It leaves time for reflection and observation, something rather difficult to do in the busy hours in which it is dark. 

Tomie

Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny's when she meets a youn man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city.

Maureen

"It's not as if our lives are simply divided into light and dark. There's a shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does.”

***

Officially adding this to my list of fave Murakami books (not that I've read plenty though). I couldn't put it down, hence I finished it in a day. This novel probes into the things that happen past midnight—particularly how people tend to disclose parts of themselves they can't admit during the day. I loved how meaningful the formed connections were, and that Murakami introduced strong female leads in this story.

As always, he never hesitates to leave readers in the dark. Unlike other novels, I don't see this as a problem. I think I've already gotten used to Murakami's trademark.

♱ zuzanna 

Vince Hilahan

i wanna pull an all nighter wandering now

Completely devoured this novel— (during) 

—I love how unbeknownst to me, I was mindlessly reading by the time stamp. It was atmospheric, dreamy, utterly hypnotic and it felt like I was part of the narrative. Murakami’s distinctive style blends so well with the cinematic mood of Tokyo at night. I adore the characters so much, especially love Mari and Takahashi’s dynamics. It was short but it definitely left me wanting more!

Completely devoured this novel— (during) after dark—I love how unbeknownst to me, I was mindlessly reading by the time stamp. It was atmospheric, dreamy, utterly hypnotic and it felt like I was part of the narrative. Murakami’s distinctive style blends so well with the cinematic mood of Tokyo at night. I adore the characters so much, especially love Mari and Takahashi’s dynamics. It was short but it definitely left me wanting more!

sani

“That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel.”

3.5☆? i was told that After Dark is the easiest book to get into Murakami and in a way, it was true! but it was sort of underwhelming? i think i had far more higher expectations but i would definitely try to read more of his books, trying to ignore that the blatant misogyny isn't present. 

one thing about the book is that all the characters were very fascinating, even Eri, even though she wasn't even participating in the story as an active character, at least. Takahashi and Mari were so interesting, i don't think i would ever stop myself from thinking of what happens to them in the future. 

as someone who loves the beauty of the night, this book regrew my connection with it. “Time moves in it special way in the middle of the night.” absolutely true.

arwen

It was alright, I don't think I would have finished this book if I didn't listen to the audiobook.
I am just confused about what I just listened to, I feel like it was several short stories, but all connected somehow? I don't really understand this book...

Kendall McClain

I love books that take place entirely in one day / night!! So good and funny. Reading conversations between interesting people is always so entrancing to me and Murakami does this very well

A short, sleek novel of encounters set in the witching hours of Tokyo between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. At its center are two sisters: Yuri, a fashion model sleeping her way into oblivion; and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny’s into lives radically alien to her own: those of a jazz trombonist who claims they’ve met before; a burly female “love hotel” manager and her maidstaff; and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These “night people” are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Yuri’s slumber–mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime – will either restore or annihilate her. After Dark moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency – the interplay between self-expression and understanding, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. “Eyes mark the shape of the city. Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature–or more, like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms. Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting the old. To the rhythm of its pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and flare up and squirm. Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of activity has indeed passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city’s moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises nor falls but is pregnant with foreboding.” —from After Dark

Ryan 

★★★★★ // my favorite murakami. he makes the night—the witching hour—seem like a character of its own, as if it is an entity existing with everyone else. almost romantic, just the right kind of mysterious. mari is by far my favorite murakami heroine.

In both style and story, this feels like Murakami on autopilot.

Frederik De Bosschere

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?

Xiang

y✦

easily a comfort read for an insomniac like me

Haritlak Thawikasikam

Five spot after dark - Curtis Fuller -- is the best backing soundtrack when you read this book at night.

Aamna

Something about it makes you very conscious of yourself and surroundings as you read it. Sometimes your hair stand on end. You could say it's the kind of mindfuck you gift yourself, happily.

Jehan Chawla

It might be the perfect first Murakami book one should read. Saying that I found this a weak entry in the already amazing Murakami Books I've read. Murakami shines the best in his world building and magical realism and those are the shining parts of this novel. I feel like the plot and character building had to take a little side step because of the novelty idea of making the plot revolve around a series of adventures contained in a Single night. Credit where the credit is due; The writing is beautiful. The proses are poetic. 
I know I'll come to love this book even more after re-reading. It reads like a book that should be savoured not rushed.
"Is action merely the incidental product of thought, or is thought the consequential product of action?"

jess larry

I lost my love for reading years ago, and I think this book just bring it back to life. It was really beautifully written and easy to read. 

Felt like I was enveloped in an eerie atmosphere when reading it and it was definitely an amazing experience. 

I definitely recommend it to people like me, who are seeking to get back in touch with reading.

i had a nightmare about this book last night

Loved it! Love Murakami, and this particular one had a lot of parts that really spoke to my own life. I love the vignette style of telling a story based on very small interactions and how they all connect, this book was so interesting, very slice of life, and extremely atmospheric.

The half a star missing for a full 5 is because I would have loved to see the businessman actually get punished for what he did in the hotel, his story felt like it ended very abruptly compared to every other character

Emma Lechner

Loved it! Love Murakami, and this particular one had a lot of parts that really spoke to my own life. I love the vignette style of telling a story based on very small interactions and how they all connect, this book was so interesting, very slice of life, and extremely atmospheric.

The half a star missing for a full 5 is because I would have loved to see the businessman actually get punished for what he did in the hotel, his story felt like it ended very abruptly compared to every other character

After Dark

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