Acquainted With The Night — Books for Insomniacs

Will Layman is a writer, teacher and musician in the Washington, D.C., area. iStockphoto.com All Things Considered, November 11, 2008 · Daylight savings time has lapsed, and winter is creeping our way. Darkness comes sooner and lasts longer with every passing day. I know I ought to go to bed earlier. But I'm still awake — hunkered in the midnight shadows with my nose in a book, letting my head run wild. After Dark, by Haruki Murakami, paperback, 256 pages The pitch darkness moves the world with a different logic in Haruki Murakami's After Dark. There are two sisters: Eri chooses not to wake for months, watched in her sleep by a mysterious camera, while Mari stays awake in a downtown Tokyo Denny's, drenched with Burt Bacharach and fluorescence. After she meets a winsome jazz trombonist, Mari is led to translate for an abused... [read full story]