An eclectic, eccentiric and altogether brain-bending new collection of short stories from the cult Japanese author. A young man accompanies his cousin to the hospital to check an unusual hearing complaint and recalls a story of a woman put to sleep by tiny flies crawling inside her ear; a mirror appears out of nowhere and a nightwatchman is unnerved as his reflection tries to take control of him; a couple’s relationship is unbalanced after dining exclusively on exquisite crab while on holiday; a man follows instructions on the back of a postcard to apply for a job, but an unknown password stands between him and his mysterious employer. In each one of these stories Murakami sidesteps the real and sprints for the surreal. Everyday events are transcended, leaving the reader dazzled by this master of his craft. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is Murakami’s most eclectic collection of stories to date, spanning five years of his writing. An introduction explains the diversity of the author's choice.

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicles comes this superb collection of twenty-four stories that generously expresses Murakami’s mastery of the form.From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether during a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, or sexuality, or the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be closest of all.

The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realise they've been acquainted through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese and requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporfic state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth - a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, a hint of life flickers across the TV screen, though the television's plug has been pulled. Murakami, acclaimed master of the surreal, returns with a stunning new novel, where the familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight, even to those that thrive in small hours. With "After Dark", we journey beyond the twilight, strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

Birthday Stories, edited by Haruki Murakami, is a slight dose of morphine for those who are waiting for the English translation of his latest novel, Kafka on Shore. This "timeless anthology" of short stories brings the readers to see birthdays at different angles. There are sober birthdays, and also sweet ones. Stories are selected to provide a wide range of writing styles, from contemporary writer Andrea Lee and Ethan Canin to the famous Raymond Craver, Paul Theroux and Murakami himself. Personally, my favourite picks in the book include: "The Moor" by Russell Banks (a man meeting a woman accidentally on her birthday thirty years later and a love affair involving an age difference of decades is revisited); "Timothy's Birthday" (about how Timothy draws away from his parents after his homoosexual partner died in the previous year); "The Birthday Cake" by Daniel Lyons (a mother who insists on not giving away a cake for their children who are not coming home for celebration); "The Bath" by Raymond Craver (the parental worries on concern on the car accdient of their beloved birthday son; the ending is particularly thought-provoking) and "Close to the Water's Edge" by Claire Keegan (an eminent Harvard student failing to change his lifestyle on his birthday). The first book I picked up by Ethan Canin was his collection of short stories called The Palace Thief. His writing style already haunted me at that time. What amazes me more in his "Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath" is his fast-paced plot and the delicate treatment of the psychology of a paranoid and ignored birthday mother. The dialogues are simple but powerful, short by revealing. Let's talk about the dose of Murakami morphine. His story "Birthday Girl" is simple and consise to bring out the message that no matter what we wish on our birthdays, we are still what we are. Wishes for a change in fact do not, or cannot, change anything at all". This is similar to the everything-happens-for-a-reason theory in Wild Sheel Chase. The birthday girl in the story does not tell the narrator what she wished on her 20th birthday. Does it matter? Her life still goes on like normal.(Remind me of the ending shot in Lost in Translation!) This anthology is a fast-read. All the stories in the anthology are very solid, nothing pretentious. It is definitely one of the books you may pick out if you have no dates on the forthcoming birthday - a great birthday companion. What should be mentioned here is the poem (or lyrics?) written by Paul Simon at the beginning of the anthology - "Have a good time". How many of us really had a good time on our past birthdays? Or how many of us expected so? Will we have a (un)happy birthday next year? We don't know. But the characters in the stories tell us that they have something to grasp on theirs - the readers.