Reality bends all the more acutely with lack of sleep in this stunning novel from the master of the surreal.Eyes mark the shape of the cityThe midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help.Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; it has lasted for two months. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00, a hint of life flickers across the television screen in her room, even though it's plug has been pulled out.Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?
Iuliana Oprina Books


The Elephant Vanishes
- 336 pages
- 12 hours of reading
When A Man'S Favourite Elephant Vanishes, The Balance Of His Whole Life Is Subtly Upset; A Couple'S Midnight Hunger Pangs Drive Them To Hold Up A Mcdonald'S; A Woman Finds She Is Irresistible To A Small Green Monster That Burrows Through Her Front Garden; An Insomniac Wife Wakes Up To A Twilight World Of Semi-Consciousness In Which Anything Seems Possible - Even Death. In Every One Of The Stories That Make Up The Elephant Vanishes, Murakami Makes A Determined Assault On The Normal. He Has A Deadpan Genius For Dislocating Realities To Uncover The Surreal In The Everyday, The Extraordinary In The Ordinary.