I am a big fan of Murakami, he can take you on a magical journey into a reality which could go in any direction and you are guaranteed to be left with many questions that you are able to answer with your own ideas after the story has finished…that is how it works with his full length novels. Short stories don’t work as well, the 6 stories in this collection are fantastic but they are not long enough, the characters don’t get a chance to develop and you just start to get intrigued when the story ends.

My favourite story was about the bloke who built bonfires on the beach, he really shows the art of building a good fire, but all that happens at the end is you are left wanting more…I was even left wanting more of the kids story within the last story in the book. I’m not sure what the underlying theme is here, it could be men’s inability to show love or it could be about how a bear goes about selling honey, whatever it is about I wish there was more…I might have mentioned that already.

If you are starting out on Murakami’s writing don’t start here.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/after-the-quake-by-haruki-murakami/