of six short stories written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The Kobe Earthquake, which took place in the early hours of January 17, 1995, let off a 7.2 magnitude that lasted roughly twenty seconds-shocking the world around them, taking over five thousand lives–most of were taken in the heart of Kobe. In Murakami’s book, after the quake, the six stories explore the seemingly tangential, yet very real, effect of the earthquake on a series of Japanese characters. Murakami would claim that the feeling