Book Review: After the Quake

Bought at the Strand for $10. A brief collection of short stories by the master Haruki Murakami, read very fast (only 147 pages) in between reading The Life of Pi. Six stories of people dealing with the earthquake in Kobe in 1995. But not in the way you would expect. There are no tragedies of families splitting apart, wives widowed or children orphaned. Instead Murakami weaves the trauma of the earthquake into the everyday lives of his characters, usually deep underneath their consciousness. An introverted loan officer joins a human-sized frog to save the city before the quake. A little girl dreams of a frightening Earthquake Man and is comforted by stories of a talking bear. A man builds a community by creating bonfires on a series of beaches. These stayed with me after reading.