The Elephant Vanishes

In this entertaining collection of 17 off-the-wall short stories by Japan's leading contemporary novelist, strange things happen in an ordinary world. Or mostly ordinary. In Japan. Mostly. A man, cooking spaghetti, receives a surprise phone call; hunger drives a couple to rob McDonald's; an insomniac wife wakes in a different world; a middle-class middle manager deals with a defining moment in his childhood; and an elephant vanishes. While the tales are engaging and quirky, Murakami's hallmarks of strong storylines and a sympathetic view of his characters are as prominent here in his shorter prose as in his novels. Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto on 12 January 1949. He began writing at the age of 24. The impulse to do so first struck him, he says, during a baseball match, at the very moment when a famous player hit a home run. He went straight home and started to write. With translations in other European languages, and a growing following on both sides of the Atlantic, Haruki Murakami's standing as one of the leading international writers of our time is increasing, and makes audio versions essential.