HARUKI MURAKAMI AFTER DARK SIGNED H/C 1ST/1ST (BORDERS)

After Dark

(ISBN: 1846550475)

Haruki Murakami

(SIGNED/LIMITED)

 London: Harvill Secker, 2007.

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Hard Cover in Slip Case. [201pps]

 Signed by Author.

Fine / No Jacket/As Issued.

One of 800 copies produced for Border's UK signed 'Haruki' to publishers bookplate.

Black cloth boards with silver gilt image of television set in matching slipcase with silver gilt trailing wire and plug.

Translated by Jay Rubin.

The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realize they've been acquainted through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese and requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporific state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth --- a sleeping beauty. But tonight, as the digital clock displays 00:00, a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, a hint of life flickers across the TV screen, though the televisions plug has been pulled.