Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami

Birthday Girl

by Haruki Murakami

Birthday Girl is a beguiling, exquisitely satisfying short story . A taste of master storytelling, published to celebrate Murakami's 70th birthday.

She waited on tables as usual that day, her twentieth birthday. She always worked Fridays, but if things had gone according to plan on that particular Friday, she would have had the night off.

One rainy Tokyo night, a waitress's uneventful twentieth birthday takes a strange and fateful turn when she's asked to deliver dinner to the restaurant's reclusive owner. Birthday Girl is a beguiling, exquisitely satisfying taste of master storytelling, published to celebrate Murakami's 70th birthday.

Birthday Girl is also available in Birthday Stories and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.

Reviewed by chetofuor on

3 of 5 stars

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‘Birthday Girl’ by Haruki Murakami (the tiny book) was kind of a downer. It’s just a short story, so the time investment was minimal, but I guess I was really unaffected by it. Am I not a true Murakami stan?!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 15 March, 2019: Finished reading
  • 15 March, 2019: Reviewed