Sometimes I sit around in seedy restaurants, playing with my coffee cup and pretending to read a book, hoping that a stranger will talk to me. This is precisely what happens when Mari Asai, the 19-year-old protagonist of After Dark by Haruki Murakami, sits down in a Denny’s with a book and a desire to be left alone. Such is the nature of the short novel, which melds the circumstances of incidental meetings and loneliness.

Dealing with the dark happenings of Tokyo from the hours of midnight to dawn, Murakami weaves the stories of Mari and her catatonic fashion model sister with the swarthy underworld of love hotel workers, criminals, and an interesting trombonist, Tetsuya Takahashi. Takahashi is Mari’s portal into this new and disturbing world.

While Mari discovers that there is life beyond her sheltered melancholy, we are able to relate to her discovery. A reluctantly empathetic character who encounters unlikely new friends, we learn to appreciate the intricacies of life through Mari’s eyes. As layers of the story are revealed, we relate to many of the facets of loneliness explored.

After Dark is available from Random House books.