Title:

The Elephant Vanishes-1993

Written by: Haruki Murakami

Narrated by: Jay Rubin

The Elephant Vanishes is a story about a mysterious case where an elephant mysteriously disappeared
with its keeper. The narrator goes on a journey to find the animal and explains what happened to it.

The narrator talks about a business party he attended a few months later, where he met a woman and
told her of being the last person to see an elephant. He claims that he saw a massive difference between
the animal and its keeper and that he felt that it was a bit smaller than he thought.

I chose the story because I’ve heard about the author himself Haruki Murakami in 2018 at Riyadh
international book fair through Publishing House in the Japanese corner but have not read any book for
him so this time is a perfect time to know more about his tales. I enjoyed the way he told the story and
the details such as pouring his second cup of coffee and how the ice in his glass melted as he was talking
to a woman.

Line from the story:

I often get the feeling that things around me have lost their proper balance, though it could be that my
perceptions are playing tricks on me. Some kind of balance inside me has broken down since the
elephant affair, and maybe that causes external phenomena to strike my eye in a strange way. It’s
probably something in me. (Murakami, 1993,page2)

I chose this quote because I always feel the way the writer does when I want to take a step forward
specifically in a romantic relationship, I end up losing focus, fear, hesitation, delusion about things that
don't exist, and thinking about how my life will be with her on the future and whether I can cope with
having someone to share with me My life after years of living alone.

I highly recommend the story and enjoy the small details

Reference:

Murakami. H. (n.d). The Elephant Vanishes. ESL-Bits.

http://esl-bits.net/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories/The.Elephant.Vanishes/01/default.html
" The Elephant Vanishes" was the first story that I read by Haruki Murakami. It caught my attention
mainly due to its author's style and content. This story involves an aged elephant that was adopted by
the town community for some time after they have closed the zoo. One day, the keeper and the animal
suddenly disappeared. The townspeople became confused as to the exact cause of the disappearance.
The Salesperson was curious to know the reason after the authorities searched for the elephant for
several days, but they could not find it. As a result, he started to copy and paste all of the newspaper
reports he could find about the animal in his scrapbook. He then meets a woman in a hotel who claims
to be the sole witness of a mysterious event. He told her the elephant shrunk while he was watching,
and that's why both of them were able to vanish.He was the last person to see the elephant and its
keeper. He was able to do so after observing them on the evening of their disappearance. They
reportedly became more affectionate towards one another.

Like many of his works, this story is about a society that is out of order. Its characters feel alienated and
disillusioned. In this short story, the narrator shows how the disappearance of the old ways makes
people feel disoriented and disconnected.