ISBN |
9780099448754 (paperback) |
Name |
Murakami, Haruki, 1949- author. |
Title |
The elephant vanishes / Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum & Jay Rubin. |
Published |
London : Vintage, 2003. |
©1993 |
Description |
327 pages ; 20 cm. |
Summary |
This collection of stories exposes Japan as it is experienced from the inside. The stories take place in parallel worlds, not so much remote from normal life as hidden beneath its surface. 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. |
Language note |
Translated from the Japanese. |
Subjects |
Murakami, Haruki, -- 1949-Translations into English |
Japanese fiction -- Translations into English |
Japan -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction |
Genre |
Short stories |
Other Names |
Birnbaum, Alfred translator. |
Rubin, Jay, 1941- translator. |
Links to Related Works |
Subject References:
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Authors:
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