Haruki Murakami...

Thanks in full again to DKT for yet another flawless suggestion. Haruki Murakami, heralded Japanese novelist, seems to hold a position of profound respect in the world of contemporary literature. Although I've yet to get into any of his many novels, I've made an effort to read up on his work, which has served only to oxygenate the flame of my interest. His short stories, as far as I've explored, seem to be tiny masterpieces of subtle character interaction set in evocative, sometimes very natural, environs. Take me there, please...

A fairly slick little site about Murakami even with some pages still under construction ~

http://www.murakami.ch/main_7.html

A lovely Murakami short story from an Emerson College source ~

http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleID=7520