Birthday Stories is a 2002 short story anthology edited by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Despite the theme’s happy connotations most of the short stories have a dark, melancholic atmosphere.

In this haunting work of journalistic investigation, Haruki Murakami tells the story of the horrific terrorist attack on Japanese soil that shook the entire world.

In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat—and then for his wife as well—in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists.

His life was like his recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and eth upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan’s finest novelist.

South of the Border, West of the Sun portrays the story of Hajime, a youth born in post-war Japan to parents of average middle-class standing, his interactions and relationships with people through life and his struggles, in later years, to shake off a listless existence.

Tales of upheaval and confusion, longing and love in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake.

A warm, emotional tale of love, friendship and following your heart.’ Milly Johnson