After the quake

after the quake
First US edition cover
Author(s)	Haruki Murakami
Original title	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
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Genre(s)	Short story collection
Publisher	Shinchosha (JP) Knopf (US)
Publication date	February 2000
Published in English	August 13, 2002
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	201 (JP) 192 (US)
ISBN	ISBN 4-10-353411-7 (JP) ISBN 0-375-41390-1 (US)
OCLC Number	43797498
LC Classification	PL856.U673 K36 2000

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

A feature film of the story All God's Children Can Dance was released in 2007.^[3]

.DC: JPN (after the quake 2011), an EP inspired after each story from after the quake was released in March 2011 following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami to help benefit the relief efforts by musician Dre Carlan.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Drama on 3 After the Quake". BBC Radio 3. 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/dramaon3/pip/kn05t/. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
2. ^ "after the quake". Berkeley Repertory Theatre. 2007. Archived from the original on 13 April 2008. http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0708/2099.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-24. 
3. ^ All God's Children Can Dance at IMDb
4. ^ .DC: JPN (after the quake 2011) at bandcamp