Under the Eye of the Big Bird
ABOUT
THE BOOK
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 humans.
Original title in Japanese, 大きな鳥にさらわれないよう (Ōkina tori ni sarawarenai yō), published by 講談社 (Kodansha) (2016)
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Asa
Yoneda
Asa Yoneda is the translator of books including ‘Picnic in the Storm’ by Yukiko Motoya, ‘The Premonition’ by Banana Yoshimoto, and ‘Idol, Burning’ by Rin Usami, as well as stories by Natsuko Kuroda, Atsushi Nakajima, and (with David Boyd) Midori Osaki.
Asa Yoneda is the translator of books including ‘Picnic in the Storm’ by Yukiko Motoya, ‘The Premonition’ by Banana Yoshimoto, and ‘Idol, Burning’ by Rin Usami, as well as stories by Natsuko Kuroda, Atsushi Nakajima, and (with David Boyd) Midori Osaki.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Under the Eye of the Big Bird is a novel consisting of interconnected short stories. In this thought provoking, speculative fiction book Hiromi Kawakami carries out a kind of human experiment in a world in which sexual reproduction, family ties and societal roles have been reimagined. Using her vivid style, she selects moments from a large and expansive time frame and shows their insignificance and simultaneously supreme importance to tell the story of the fate of humanity. (Tartu Public Library)