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Under the Eye of the Big Bird

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Under the Eye of the Big Bird
2025 Book jacket for Under the Eye of the Big Bird
2024 and 2025 book jacket
AuthorHiromi Kawakami
TranslatorAsa Yoneda
SubjectFictional evolution, Biological alteration, Humanity, Survival, Extinction
GenreSpeculative and Post-apocalyptic fiction
Set inEarth
Published2024 and 2025
PublisherSoft Skull Press, Granita Publishing
Publication placeUnited Kingdom, United States
Media typePrint, E-book,
Pages278
ISBN9781803512983 9781803512358,
OCLC1467885598
Website

Under the Eye of the Big Bird (Japanese: 大きな鳥にさらわれないよう, romanized: Ōkina tori ni sarawarenai yō, lit. 'To Avoid Being Carried Away By Big Birds') is a speculative fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptical future depicting humanity's precarious survival spanning geologic time periods. It was written by Hiromi Kawakami in Japanese and translated into English by Asa Yoneda. The book was published by Granta Books in 2025.[1][2][3][4] This book was previously released by Soft Skull Press in 2024.[4] It has been short-listed for the 2025 International Booker Prize.[5][6][7]

Plot

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In a future where humanity is close to extinction and is barely hanging on through science, this novel's overarching story unfolds through a series of short interconnected pieces.[1][3][8][9] In this future, Earth is filled with fear, surveillance, and separation. It is a scary, lonely place where people are watched and just try to stay alive. Characters have to make strenuous efforts to survive in a world where humans are produced in factories and communities are isolated and kept far apart. Hence, these characters employ various strategies:

Child-rearing is handled by groups of mothers who might not be fully human, and some beings are somewhat animal-like. While some unusual technology exists (like projecting thoughts into birds), important knowledge like space travel is lost. It's a bleak outlook, and the central problem is how to preserve even a small chance for humanity's future success on the planet.[1][3][8][9]

In the first chapter, "Keepsakes", the small populated community of humans are made from animals, but they aren't allowed to know which animal. When someone dies, their spouse gets a small bone shaped like the skull of that secret animal ancestor (the narrator's husband came from a dolphin). In another chapter, "Changes", some people have developed new powers. The narrator, Kyla, can read minds and senses her future partner Noah's sadness as the color amethyst. Though human, they are metaphorically described as having a quality like minerals.[1][3]

The development of the future timeline depends on "watchers." These are clones, raised by the group "mothers" previously mentioned. The "watchers" fly around in hovercraft to constantly observe people. One chapter is set 5,000 years from now. However, it seems the text is asking if some of these future events might be closer than they seem.[1]

Critical reception

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The novel received mostly positive reviews from critics, particularly for its imagination and creativity. The New Yorker magazine wrote that "[Kawakami's] terse, candid prose emphasizes the alienation of a world where death, sex, and clones all feel equally mechanical. At the same time, the processes by which these not-quite-humans begin to re-create religion and society feel innately familiar."[8]

James Bradley, writing for The Guardian wrote, "[This novel] offers a powerful corrective to the assumption of human primacy, instead reminding us that we are not the endpoint in the process of evolution, but simply one link in a much longer chain."[2]

Molly Templeton, reviewing the book for Esquire magazine, praised the imaginative premise of the stories and their depth, commenting that that Under the Eye of the Big Bird depicts imagined scenes of a world after an unexplained catastrophe. Templeton also says that the writing style is calm, even when suggesting the end of humanity. The narrative communicates a feeling of destiny within each of Kawakami's interconnected stories, and has been produced by an original imagination, with more depth revealed in subsequent readings.[9]

Niall Harrison, writing for Locus magazine, described the novel as "accomplished", and commented that "[t]he power and the pain of the novel lies in its ability to bridge between humanity as an abstract and humanity as a characteristic, to pick out moments from a vast sweep of time and show their insignificance and their simultaneous, ultimate importance." [3]

Hannah Beckerman of The Guardian gave a mixed review, praising Kawakami's imagination, but criticizing the narrative and lack of coherence, commenting that the book was "a somewhat disjointed and at times confusing tale".[10] Lionel Shriver of the Financial Times gave a negative review, criticizing the tone, lack of compelling characters, the lack of narrative and forward momentum, and the lack of world development.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Leichter, Hilary (September 3, 2024). "To Survive in the Future, Humanity May Need to Become Less Human". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Bradley, James (January 2, 2025). "Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami review – humanity's future". The Guardian. United Kingdom.
  3. ^ a b c d e Harrison, Niall (February 4, 2025). "Review: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami". Locus magazine. Retrieved April 18, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Payton, Justine (September 3, 2024). "Book Review: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami". The Masters Review. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
  5. ^ Marshall, Alex (April 8, 2025). "International Booker Prize Shortlist: 6 Books to Talk About". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
  6. ^ "Shortlist". International Booker Prize 2025. April 7, 2025. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
  7. ^ "About: Under the Eye of the Big Bird". Booker Prize. April 7, 2025. Retrieved April 18, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c "Briefly Noted". The New Yorker. November 18, 2024. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Templeton, Molly (December 3, 2024). "The 30 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024". Esquire magazine. Retrieved April 18, 2025.
  10. ^ Beckerman, Hannah (26 January 2025). "In brief: Missing Persons; Compendium of the Occult; Under the Eye of the Big Bird – review". The Observer. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  11. ^ Shriver, Lionel (14 January 2025). "Under the Eye of the Big Bird — extinction rebellion". Financial Times. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
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