My first Murakami, and I'm pleased to report that I really enjoyed this. Having seen two incredible screen adaptations of his work, I thought I should start with the collection containing the original story of my favourite - in this case, "Barn Burning." It's a haunting narrative on both page and screen, but the other stories here are also excellent. Not all of them land as impactfully as othees, but that's an occupational hazard of short fiction collections. There are no stories here that I didn't enjoy at least a little bit, and the best of the bunch are nothing short of captivating ("Sleep"), heartrending ("A Slow Boat to China") or laugh-out-loud funny ("Family Affair"). Kudos to the translators who manage to capture such a natural tone while still feeling grounded in a consistent, slightly surreal vein that seems to characterise Murakami's work. I've immediately set my sights on some of his longer stuff.