Under the Eye of the Big Bird

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami is a lyrical, quietly extraordinary collection of linked stories imagining life on Earth after the end of humanity — the world repopulated by new beings who carry fragments of human memory, desire, and feeling without quite understanding them. Kawakami, one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary writers, approaches the post-apocalyptic premise with her characteristic subtlety: this is not science fiction in any conventional sense but something closer to prose poetry — meditations on what it means to be alive, to love, to remember, to feel the pull of the past. Published by Portobello Books, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, this is essential for readers who love Kawakami’s other translated works and a compelling introduction for those encountering her for the first time.