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Haruki Murakami’s After Dark maintains the promise of its title as it takes us, minute by minute, through the chilling events of a night in Tokyo. We sit with Mari Asai in Denny’s family restaurant until she is involved in a discussion with a near stranger.

Takahashi introduces the topic of her sister and we learn, as the night progresses, that lovely Eri Asai has been sleeping for two months. We visit her room and observe a sinister form of surveillance.

Mari’s competence in Chinese leads her to involve herself in the rescue of a Chinese prostitute who has been brutally beaten, and we subsequently see the evil perpetrator in his office. We understand that he is, in some way, involved in Eri Asai’s deliberate choice of deep sleep.

Takahashi is clearly attracted to Mari and their relationship, as the night progresses, leads her to better understand how she can help her sleeping sister. As the night progresses towards first light, we are really drawn into the fate of all of these characters.

Jay Rubin’s translation, in Vintage, is so flawless that there are never moments when we realise we are reading a text that was originally written in Japanese. The prose and pace are both such as to render this an exciting novel to read.

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