After the Quake
Haruki Murakami
“Why did you choose me to go to lunch with?” Junpei had asked him that day. Takatsuki smiled and tapped his temple with complete confidence. “I have a talent for picking the right friends at the right times in the right place.”
He was right, Junpei thought, setting his coffee mug on the kitchen table. Takatsuki did have an intuitive knack for picking the right friends. But that was not enough. Finding one person to love over the long haul of one’s life was quite a different matter from finding friends. Junpei closed his eyes and thought about the long stretch of time that had passed through him. He did not want to think of it as something he had merely used up without any meaning.
As soon as Sayoko woke in the morning, he would ask her to marry him. He was sure now. He couldn’t waste another minute. Taking care not to make a sound, he opened the bedroom door and looked at Sayoko and Sala sleeping bundled in a comforter. Sala lay with her back to Sayoko, whose arm was draped on Sala’s shoulder. He touched Sayoko’s hair where it fell across the pillow, and caressed Sala’s small pink cheek with the tip of his finger. Neither of them stirred. He eased himself down to the carpeted floor by the bed, his back against the wall, to watch over them in their sleep.
Eyes fixed on the hands of the wall clock, Junpei thought about the rest of the story for Sala—the tale of Masakichi and Tonkichi. He had to find a way out. He couldn’t just leave Tonkichi stranded in the zoo. He had to save him. He retraced the story from the beginning. Before long, the vague outline of an idea began to sprout in his head, and, little by little, it took shape.
Tonkichi had the same thought as Sala: he would use the honey that Masakichi had collected to bake honey pies. It didn’t take him long to realize that he had a real talent for making crisp, delicious honey pies. Masakichi took the honey pies to town and sold them to the people there. The people loved Tonkichi’s pies and bought them by the dozen. So Tonkichi and Masakichi never had to separate again: they lived happily ever after in the mountains, best friends forever.
Sala would be sure to love the new ending. And so would Sayoko.
I want to write stories that are different from the ones I’ve written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. But right now I have to stay here and keep watch over this woman and this girl. I will never let anyone—not anyone—try to put them into that crazy box—not even if the sky should fall or the earth crack open with a roar.
about the author
Born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1949, Haruki Murakami grew up in Kobe and now lives near Tokyo. The most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. His work has been translated into twenty-seven languages.
INTERNATIONAL
books by haruki murakami
after the quake
Sputnik Sweetheart
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche (nonfiction)
South of the Border, West of the Sun
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Dance Dance Dance
The Elephant Vanishes
Norwegian Wood
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
A Wild Sheep Chase
acclaim for haruki murakami’s after the quake
“Both mysterious and yet somehow quite familiar."
—Alan Cheuse, San Francisco Chronicle
“In these stories… Murakami proves himself to be almost as fantastic—and as heroic—as his creations.”
—Elle
“Trim, beautiful, diamond sharp, and profoundly layered in… mystical symbolism and daily absurdities. Murakami’s evocations of grace and possible redemption are startling, dangerous, and moving.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Haruki Murakami remains one of the most accessible Japanese writers for Western readers.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Spare yet richly mysterious and emotionally prismatic, these unpredictable tales explore the subtle ways the earthquake affected those who live far from its epicenter yet who are nonetheless shaken to their very core…. Haunting.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“The stories here are well-crafted and lyrical…. They are sometimes absurd, sometimes quite funny, but they all have real epiphanies and real moments of feeling.”
—Rocky Mountain News
Copyright
FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION, MAY 2003
Copyright © 2002 by Haruki Murakami
Title page art: Moonscape © 2002 by Iris Weinstein
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage International and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
“Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” was originally published in GQ. “Thailand” was originally published in Granta. “All God’s Children Can Dance” was originally published in Harper’s. “UFO in Kushiro” and “Honey Pie” were originally published in The New Yorker. “Landscape with Flatiron” was originally published in Ploughshares.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows: Murakami, Haruki
[Kami no kodomo-tachi wa mina odoru. English]
After the quake: stories / Haruki Murakami; translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin.—1st American ed.
p. cm.
Contents: UFO in Kushiro—Landscape with flatiron—All god’s children can dance—Thailand—Super-frog saves Tokyo—Honey pie.
www.vintagebooks.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42464-8
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