I'd like to nominate After Dark by Haruki Murakami. The narrative takes place over about 12 hours and involves a young musician and a young woman who's sister is in a coma. What is remarkable about it is the point of view of the narrator - which appears to be first person plural. This is (part of) what The Guardian said about it:
Quote:
After Dark is perhaps the closest Murakami has yet come to composing a pure tone-poem. Aspects of his earlier styles - the dark, surreal farce of A Wild Sheep Chase, the mournful realism of Norwegian Wood, the supernatural yearning of Sputnik Sweetheart - here intermingle in a story that spells out less but evokes as much if not more. Exposition is set to the minimum, while the mood-colouring is virtuosic. Morning, at the end of the novel, is an extraordinary blend of the hesitant blossoming of romance and an ode to renewal. The novel could be an allegory of sleep, a phenomenology of time, or a cinematic metafiction. Whatever it is, its memory lingers.
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It really is a remarkable book.