After The Quake

"Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment" (91).

Where do you go from there?

Using the 1995 Kobe earthquake as the common thread, Murakami discusses friendship, loss, confusion, family, and even super heroes in these six short stories. A man losing his wife and possibly much more, two friends seeing art in the love of building bonfires, a son questioning his faith while searching for his real father, a woman turning a business trip to Thailand into a personal vacation, these stories take you to another part of the world and into other ways of living. The stories are quick and interesting because of the way they end, leaving blanks for you to fill with your own details. It's clear Murakami writes stories to figure things out; you do the same by reading them.

Murakami asks many of the same questions you do about life, laying down events that will turn over in your head for weeks after you finish. Why would he say that? What was in that package? Why is she so angry about it? What's with the giant frog in his apartment?