After the Quake

Tales of upheaval and confusion, longing and love in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake

Tales of upheaval and confusion, longing and love in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake.

For the characters in after the quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent thirty 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.

'In a dance with the delights of Murakami’s imagination we experience the limitless possibilities of fiction. With these stories Murakami expands our hearts and minds yet again’ The Times