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After the Quake

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

For the characters in After the Quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago.

Satsuki has spent 30 years hating one man: did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away. Fourteen-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Earthquake Man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive burrowing worm.

'When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes,' says Frog. 'And right now he is very, very angry.'

©2000 Haruki Murakami (P)2021 Penguin Audio Anthologies & Short Stories Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Short Stories Magic Natural Disaster
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After the Quake is a series of stories very loosely tied to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. In some stories, the earthquake is simply mentioned in passing whereas in others, it’s more central. Contrary to what one may expect, the stories don’t particularly reflect real thoughts of the Japanese people in response to the earthquake itself (thoughts on solidarity, memory of the dead etc). Rather the earthquake appears either symbolic in meaning or the spark that ignites change for characters at crossroads in life.

Regardless of whether the earthquake is important or not, we have here a collection of compelling reads in various styles that showcase the different facets of Haruki Murakami. Given the quality on offer for such a small commitment of time, After the Quake is perhaps the best starting point for any reader wanting to get to know this incredible author.

A great starting point into the world of Murakami

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