Yvie Wilson-Moss

After reading Norwegian Wood, I was desperate to read more of Murakami. A friend had just finished After Dark and, when I had asked for recommendations, he wasted no time in posting the book to me. Initially, I was confused by the plot. I didn't understand what the symbols of darkness, broken television sets and pencils had to do with what seemed to be a dark plot centred around being asleep and staying awake. Eventually, almost as though I had been pulled into the book itself, I began to look at the themes of the book through my own personal lens. I felt, in many ways like Mari, so close yet so far from Eri in my own experiences with life. I suddenly understood the broken TV, and the constant darkness, and the dichotomy between alseep and awake in ways I never had before. This book, for that reason and many more, is a must-read.