After the Quake: Stories

After the Quake: Stories by Haruki Murakami, 181 pages. Translated by Jay Rubin, audio read by Rupert Degas and Teresa Gallagher.

Six brief stories, all in some way revolving around the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, by one of the world's great writers. "UFO in Kushiro" tels the story of a man whose wife leaves him after the quake, accusing him in a letter of having nothing inside him. Events later in the story reinforce her claims.
The first half of the book is very good, but the second half, containing the stories "Thailand," "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo," and "Honey Pie," is even better. The stories are strong, resonant with odd details, and filled with deep repressed feelings. Each of these tales has there own unique charm. The stories dwell on their character's unrelieved loneliness, their own emptiness, and the failed communications in their lives. The characters each attempt to restore normalcy and balance to their post-quake existences.
I particularly liked that the character Frog, in the story "Super Frog saves Tokyo" tries to impress on his human counterpart the importance of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.