After the Quake

I finished reading After the Quake a couple of months ago. Beautifully crafted short stories set in Japan after the Kobe earthquake. Stories not necessarily directly related to the earthquake. Stories about loneliness, fitting in, fear, hatred, and some stories plainly and simply weird. In my opinion, this is not quite Murakami at his best - for me that would be 1Q84. But still, stories that take you in and spit you out when you least expect it.