After the quake

infobox Book |
name = after the quake
title_orig = 神の子どもたちはみな踊る
Kami no kodomo-tachi wa mina odoru
"The children of the gods all dance."
translator = Jay Rubin


image_caption= US 1st edition cover
author = Haruki Murakami
cover_artist =
country = Japan
language = Japanese
series =
genre = Short story collection
publisher = Shinchosha (JP)
Knopf (US)
pub_date = February 2000
english_pub_date = August 13, 2002
media_type = Print (Hardback and Paperback)
pages = 201 pp (JP)
192 pp (US)
isbn = ISBN 4-103-53411-7 (JP 1st edition)
ISBN 0-375-41390-1 (US 1st edition)

nihongo|"after the quake"|神の子どもたちはみな踊る|Kami no kodomo-tachi wa mina odoru is a collection of short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. First published in 2000, it was released in English as "after the quake" in 2002 (translator Jay Rubin notes that Murakami "insisted" the title "should be all lower-case").

Background

The stories were written in response to Japan's 1995 Kobe earthquake, and each story is affected peripherally by the disaster. Along with "Underground", a collection of interviews and essays about the 1995 Tokyo gas attacks, and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", a complex exploration of Japan's modern history, "after the quake" represents part of an effort on the part of Murakami to adopt a more purposeful exploration of the Japanese national conscience.

The stories in "after the quake" repeat motifs, themes, and elements common in much of Murakami's earlier short stories and novels, but also present some notable stylistic changes. All six stories are told in the third person, as opposed to Murakami's much more familiar first person narrative established in his previous work. Additionally, only one of the stories contains clear supernatural elements, which are present in the majority of Murakami's stories. All of the stories are set in February 1995, the month between the Kobe earthquake and the Tokyo gas attacks. Translator Jay Rubin says of the collection, "The central characters in "after the quake" live far from the physical devastation, which they witness only on TV or in the papers, but for each of them the massive destruction unleashed by the earth itself becomes a turning point in their lives. They are forced to confront an emptiness they have borne inside them for years."

Contents

Adaptations

BBC Radio 3 broadcast a dramatized adaptation of "after the quake" on September 16 2007. [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/dramaon3/pip/kn05t/|title=Drama on 3 After the Quake|work=BBC Radio 3|date=2007|accessdate=2008-09-09] The single 88 minute episode covered four of the six stories from the book: "UFO in Kushiro, Thailand, Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" and "Honey Pie".

"Honey Pie" and "Superfrog Saves Tokyo" have been adapted for the stage and directed by Frank Galati. Entitled "after the quake", the play was first performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in association with La Jolla Playhouse, and opened October 12 2007 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. [cite web|url=http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0708/2099.asp|title=after the quake|work=Berkeley Repertory Theatre|date=2007|accessdate=2008-04-24]

References

*"Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words" by Jay Rubin, p. 255-257 (Murakami's insistence on lower-case spelling of "after the quake"; analysis of stories).