Books After Dark by Haruki Murakami (Author), Jay Rubin (Translator)

The story begins with 19-year-old Mari Asai, a shy and intellectual student reading alone in a Denny's restaurant. She meets Tetsuya Takahashi, a trombone player and aspiring law student who once courted her sister, Eri Asai, a beautiful fashion model. Mari is soon drawn into a complex series of events when Kaoru, a former professional wrestler and manager of a love hotel called Alphaville, asks Mari to translate for an injured Chinese prostitute. Mari becomes involved with the efforts to find the man who assaulted the woman.

Meanwhile, Eri, Mari's sister, is in a mysterious, deep sleep, seemingly trapped and observed by a masked "Man with No Face" through an unplugged television screen. The narrative shifts between Mari's real-world encounters and Eri's surreal, nighttime prison.

As the night unfolds, Mari navigates the dangerous underworld of Tokyo's nightlife, including run-ins with organized crime and individuals on the run. The novel explores themes of loneliness, alienation, the passage of time, and the blurred boundaries between reality and the surreal Alphaville.