"But when I look back at myself at age twenty what I remember most is being alone and lonely."

Ahh Murakami and his endless alienated, lonely male characters! Men Without Women is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami that came out in 2017 (not to be confused with Hemingway's short-story collection of the same name). Here, we have seven stories with male characters, each with varying degrees of despair, dread or loneliness from the lack or loss of women. There are themes of grief, betrayal, masochism or just complete alienation in this book. Some of the stories are really well-done, I particularly enjoyed "Samsa in Love", which is a reworked version of Franz Kafka's [b:The Metamorphosis|485894|The Metamorphosis|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1359061917s/485894.jpg|2373750], and "Kino", which has some of the many usual Murakami elements I happen to love. Most of the stories are already available online on The New Yorker.