Under the Eye of the Big Bird
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025
Author: Hiromi Kawakami and Asa Yoneda
An inventive and immersive novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction - from the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo.
Paperback
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
An inventive and immersive novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction - from the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo.
Description
In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of the Mothers. Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings - but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world.
Unfolding over geological eons, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is at once an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it and a meditation on the qualities that, for better and worse, make us human.
Critic Reviews
'Expansive and inventive...The voices and narrators across these disparate tales are diverse and intriguing...Through a simple, direct prose style, Kawakami does a great job of getting under the skin of all her characters...unsettling, thought-provoking and utterly unique...Kawakami's style is playful and light among the poignancy and depth. Wonderful writing' - The Big Issue
About the Author
HIROMI KAWAKAMI was born in Tokyo in 1958. In 2001 she won the Tanizaki Prize for Strange Weather in Tokyo, which became an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2014 International Foreign Fiction Prize. Her other fiction in translation includes The Nakano Thrift Shop, The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino, People from My Neighbourhood, and The Third Love. Kawakami has contributed to editions of Granta in both the UK and Japan and is one of Japan's most popular contemporary novelists.
ASA YONEDA was born in Osaka and studied language, literature, and translation at University of Oxford and SOAS University of London. She now lives in Bristol, U.K. In addition to Yukiko Motoya, she has translated works by Banana Yoshimoto, Aoko Matsuda, and Natsuko Kuroda.
Product Details
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.
