Under the Eye of the Big Bird

by Hiromi Kawakami, Asa Yoneda (Translator)

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.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Japan, Dystopia, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Speculative Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2016

About the author

Kawakami Hiromi (川上弘美 Kawakami Hiromi) born April 1, 1958, is a Japanese writer known for her off-beat fiction.

Born in Tokyo, Kawakami graduated from Ochanomizu Women's College in 1980. She made her debut as "Yamada Hiromi" in NW-SF No. 16, edited by Yamano Koichi and Yamada Kazuko, in 1980 with the story So-shimoku ("Diptera"), and also helped edit some early issues of NW-SF in the 1970s. She reinvented herself as a writer and wrote her first book, a collection of short stories entitled God (Kamisama) published in 1994. Her novel The Teacher's Briefcase (Sensei no kaban) is a love story between a woman in her thirties and a man in his sixties. She is also known as a literary critic and a provocative essayist.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction"

so...a utopia?

reading this in our current political climate was unbelievably peaceful. even temporary immersion in a world where humans barely cling to survival and can hardly form communities, let alone societies destined to devolve into fascist government, was like a cool shower.

this book is a challenge. it almost veers into a collection of interconnected short stories: chapters vary wildly in plot, style, perspective. your brain strains a bit to hold and place each new piece of information in the world you're growing an understanding of, which reminded me of the book of love, a book only i liked.

i think in some moments it felt like a bit more trouble than it was worth (it didn't always coalesce well), but i liked it.

even better since it stuck the landing. 

bottom line: i love you, confusing vaguely fantastical very literary books.

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Adina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 11/13 of the longlist

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 -Book 5/6

Translated into English by Asa Yoneda

It seems that this was another collection of short stories. Interconnected but short stories nevertheless. Actually, some seem to contradict with others, but at some point I stopped paying much attention so I might be wrong.

I should have liked this book. I like SF and I usually like Japanese writers, but something did not click. I enjoyed the first few stories but then I phased out. I was bored. So, the dystopian world was interesting, although leaning more towards the fantastic than SF. I also appreciated some of the philosophy discussed. However, I was ready to be done with it after page 100 or so. Maybe, I was a bit tired after reading most of the longlist and that is why I did not appreciate the book as others did.

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands-down, this is one of my new favorite collections of interconnected short stories. It feels like every year I find a new one that really jumps out and surprises me, this one, especially because I have read two other books by this author before and didn’t particularly love them.

This felt so different! And I’m not sure if it’s because of a different translator or because it’s an entirely different type of book than the other two I read. I’m so glad I gave this a shot and that the International Booker prize put it on the long list so that it was brought to my attention.

If you like speculative, sci-fi short stories, I think you’ll really like this one. You definitely have to just trust the process because at the beginning they feel very disconnected and disorienting. But as the book goes on, you will begin to see how it all connects and it is so satisfying.

Kawakami explore some really interesting ideas about humanity, about love and hate, about creation and destruction, the cycles of life, technology versus nature, and so much more in these 14 very distinct but connected tales.

Even as satisfying as the end was, do I fully understand everything I read? No. But it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the experience, especially because I know this is a book I will revisit in the future. Reading it a second time, I can only imagine, will reveal things I did not understand at first.

If you like Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark or Simon Jimenez’s The Vanished Birds, I think you will really enjoy this collection.

[Henk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025!
What is a society and a species for? Can we be human without our destructive tendencies? What does preservation even mean without change?
Things that live are things that die.

My favourite of the longlist of the International Booker Prize 2025!

In a sense every book is about what it means to be human, and Hiromi Kawakami takes the macroscopic view. Is Under the Eye of the Big Bird a stylistic marvel, full of compelling characters, or brimming with original, never before takes on what the future might hold? No, and if you asked me a day before finishing what I'd think of the book, it would have been barely 3 stars. But the daring and the clear-eyed vision on humanity as a species won me over.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird reminds me a bit of How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu or Dune in the ultra long take on humanity. Or Ilium by Dan Simmons, which has humanity post apocalypse being herded. Or the last part of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. International Booker Prize judge Anton Hur own work Toward Eternity and Foundation by Isaac Asimov and Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon come to mind as well, as does long listed Booker novel Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward.

More detailed thoughts per story, that ties together in an overarching, impressive novel, are below. Note some could be seen as spoilers, and I would actually recommend to go into the novel knowing as little as possible and just be swept away by the rich imagination of Kawakami.

We start of in a world with animal derived cloned people and centralised factories producing everything needed. People dying fast, dependent on the genetical heritage of their source animal, only revealed in death in the form of bones close to the cervix. Ideas come thick and fast, including some musing on religiosity: What are gods?
I’m not sure, but they must be something like a factory.

We then move to a world where there are 10 identical clones of a person (It’s strange to think there are humans who aren’t me), being raised by impersonal mothers, who are creations rather than human. The second story has a carousel attendant that seemed to be mentioned in the first story.
Meditative, a lonely (or at least quiet) world returned to nature and slow travel, which continues in Green Garden where we have men being 5% of the populace, roaming around to inseminate and preserve the human population.
The Dancing Child features a capricious kid with potentially supernatural abilities, raised by great mothers who I imagine as robots but are left intentionally vague. Computers are still distributed, containing all knowledge of humanity (What’s known can’t be forgotten, but what’s never been seen can’t be imagined), but there is no internet. Here Kawakami chooses almost fairytale like narration, given me Laputa Castle in the Sky or Earthsea Ghibli vibes.
There are watchers being replaced after any defects or illnesses showing up on biannual scans, who live a nomadic life. The big bird is a hornbill kept in a cage of a teacher cycling to school.
Here themes of ostracisation and heterogeneity come back, with humanity always striving for uniformity, even after civilisation fell and the population only slowly recovering:
Everyone but Dad, maybe. He’d never looked at me with that same hateful expression, at least. But that was not all. Not hating me was still totally different from loving me.

The vistas offered here are very poetic and feel set more close to our current day, except we have telekinetic and mind control powers manifesting during bullying with kids, X-men style.
Echoes builds on this time and has people transferring their consciousness to animal companions.
The Watchers here feel like the world controllers of Brave New World and technology is recovered from 8.000 years ago, showing that Kawakami is playing a long game here.
This feels both improbable (given our technological development in just he last two centuries) and very close to how our ice age hunter gatherers must have perceived time:
Don’t you think there’s something strange about the way that we live just to be made and raised, and to marry, and raise children, and then die again?
But that’s simply how it goes.

Clones that retain intergenerational memories from their originals and have a plan to guide humanity to forced evolution by isolation and inducing extreme stress to ensure genetic diversity, quite mind blowing if short on the specifics.
The Lake features very Star Trek Borg named people who go by 8 of 15.
We get some insights in how a city went from 100.000s to 500 people stable over hundreds of years, and people now just having an average lifespan of 40 years.
The Drift features the fear of the other, yet closely related, and a radical decision due to not being able to be a good person.
Testimony has humans who don’t sleep and have a green skin and no need to eat due to them being able to use photosynthesis. They are like ents, slow to actions.

Philosophical questions clearly surface here. Can human nature and the concept of progress really be left behind so easily? And how do people still have computers and no desire to reunite the world; trade seems universal if we look back in history. On the other hand we have had thousands of years of history in ancient Egypt with little technological progress at all. Even the characters comment on this: This place is always changing, but even change stops being change when you get used to it.

The Miracle Worker has councils of watchers and a child who doesn’t just prophesies but also heals through mere touch. Aisha introduces pelgrimage and massive population growth in her sector, which is supervised amongst others by Ian and Jakob from an earlier story, and Rien and 8 of 15 make an appearance as well. Inter sector communities are growing, yet the mothers grow irresponsive.

Love features the ethics of mind reading and what goes in the earlier already referred to labs, where mothers are still operational.
Humans are naturally resistant to taking in outliers. &

Inside love there was hate.
That was totally new to me.

Changes has the perspective of Kayla from Love and more clues on why Noah ended up thow he ended up in that story.
My brothers, my father, my mother - they all wanted to be understood. But as soon as I truly understood them, they started to hate me for it. To them, being known was the same as being controlled.

You’re a very human human. You create things, and you destroy more than you create.

Destination gives some answers on what are the mothers (this unveiling reminds me of Never Let Me Go in a sense, since we don’t see the mothers so we keep speculating as reader) and how the photosynthesis humans ended up.
But once something is let out of the bag, it’s almost impossible to put it back.

Technological singularity is basically unimaginable for us, why would challenges be insurmountable if we have so much more capability, except if the answer is that we can’t escape ourselves.

Are you there, God? has themes of recursion and hope in an apparent nadir of humanity:
You’re right, humans make no sense at all. You included.
Overcoming inertia and the limits to a species keep on being key questions:
Here? Everything exists, but nothing changes.

Longlist International Booker Prize 2025 ranking
Shortlisted books in bold
1 Under the Eye of the Big Bird - 4.5 stars rounded up, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2 On the Calculation of Volume I - 4.5 stars rounded down, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3 The Book of Disappearance - 4 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
4 Eurotrash - 4 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
5 Perfection - 3.5 stars rounded up, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
6 A Leopard-Skin Hat - 3.5 stars rounded down, review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
7 Reservoir Bitches - 3 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
8 Heart Lamp: Selected Stories - 3 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
9 Solenoid - 3 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
10 Hunchback - 3 stars, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
11 On a Woman's Madness - 2.5 stars rounded up, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
12 Small Boat - 2.5 stars rounded up, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
13 There's a Monster Behind the Door - 2.5 stars rounded up, review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speculative fiction structured as interlinking short stories. Hiromi Kawakami’s inventive novel traces back to a stint in an SF group at university. Kawakami is partly inspired here by fiction she discovered at that stage in her writing career: old school SF in particular Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles which she characterises as a quiet, lyrical narrative centred on destruction. Kawakami’s story’s set in a possible version of Earth, a succession of large- and small-scale, cataclysmic events have brought humans close to extinction. Countries such as Japan no longer exist, instead the world’s carved up into regions strictly isolated from one another. The rationale for this grouping’s rooted in the hope that different societies and configurations might eventually bring about new evolutionary forms, genetic shifts that may hold the key to future human survival. However, this isn’t a traditional plot-driven piece rather it’s deliberately modelled on the mythic – numerous chapters have a fable or fairy tale quality. Although, as it unfolds, it gradually veers towards more technical, hard SF territory focused on possible developments in bioengineering and AI.

Kawakami’s narrative is deliberately disorientating, constructed so readers have to puzzle out links between scenes and characters, although the final chapters provide explanations for most of what’s gone before. The timespan is vague but seems to cover several generations, some characters make brief appearances, others reappear at different stages in the story. This imagined world is inhabited by a range of organic and inorganic beings including a smattering of humans, some are mutated humans, some hybrids connecting other species and technologies – physical descriptions are often brief to non-existent so it’s up to readers to work out which is which as they go along. I liked Kawakami’s style, especially the earlier myth-like chapters, and found aspects of her worldbuilding highly appealing, if a little underdeveloped. Like a lot of SF, Kawakami’s clearly commenting on current realities as much as she’s mapping out futuristic scenarios – speciesism, climate change, the impact of technological advances. Her underlying messages are fairly familiar, less sophisticated than I’d have liked, mostly revolving around the tension between human capacity for creativity versus a tendency to engage in devastating behaviours. There’s an emphasis too on the cyclical, a little reminiscent of ideas of eternal recurrence, but shot through with faint optimism, the possibility that the latest cycle might improve on previous ones. I was less convinced by Kawakami’s critique of politics and religion. I was equally uncertain about Kawakami’s representation of technical, scientific elements like the role of AI – here surprisingly positive – and of genetic engineering, which felt frustratingly insubstantial at times. I also had questions about the specifics of this potential world such as the strange “innocence” of the different regions’ inhabitants, their near-profound lack of curiosity and an oddly docile acceptance of their fate. For me the mysterious aspects were far more satisfying than subsequent reveals. But, despite reservations, it was still an entertaining read, gripping and intriguing throughout. Translated by Asa Yoneda.

Thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Granta Books

Rating: 2.5

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025
Usually, I'm not much into SciFi and short stories, but this collection of interconnected tales describing the last humans fighting extinction is intriguing: The laconic tone together with the eerie, brooding atmosphere makes for an unsettling, engaging read. In the world described, humans have been separated into a number of regions and largely isolated from one another, so the coordinating forces, represented by enforcers called watchers, could test out what the most suitable way to ensure reproduction and thus survival could be. In some regions, men are traveling around to reproduce with multiple women, as the latter largely outnumber the males. In other regions, humans are produced in factories, most of them not from human material, but from animal matter. Elsewhere, humans have been cross-bred with plants, people merge with AI, they have three eyes and no nose, some watchers and women working as mothers are clones, one region produces kids with supernatural abilities etc.pp. - you get the idea.

Nothing here is plausible or particularly consistent, plot holes abound: How exactly were human memory and history partially erased? What about the old world and the current surroundings in which these people live, which are hardly a factor? Why do people submit to the watchers although they seem to greatly outnumber them? This is not some realist speculative fiction; rather, it's a highly metaphorical philosophical experiment pondering what it means to be human, and at what point the characters we encounter might stop being human and evolve into something different. Fourteen stories add little pieces to the overall mosaic, jumping in perspective, place and time.

But while the whole thing is innovative and mostly captivating, there are of course some stronger and some weaker stories, plus the basic idea does not carry over fourteen individual texts that are largely driven by world-building and vibes, not plot. Still, I applaud how daring the project is, and how coolly it is executed.

[Nat K · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 ***

”You’re a very human human. You create things, and you destroy more than you create.”

Have you ever wondered what will happen to the world, far far into the future? Will civilisation, as we know it, continue to exist?

This collection of fourteen interrelated short stories combine and flow into each other. Bit by bit the pieces of the puzzle start to complete the picture of what the world could indeed turn out to be like one day.

This is part dystopian albeit in quite a gentle way. I’m not usually a fan of the genre as it tends to focus on the grim side of things. Instead, this has the quaint and quiet quality - often dreamlike - that I find so many Japanese Writers have the knack for.

Humankind is no longer, not in the way we know it. Society is now built around different sized colonies, some townships and even larger cities depending on how life has evolved. There are all sorts of flora and fauna and different types of existence. People are not always genetically made up entirely of human dna. Reproduction can be via non traditional methods. This will perhaps have you question where we’re going and what influence technology and potentially superior “knowledge” (whether A.I or other) will have on our survival. Or demise. Or regeneration.

”...AI was supposed to be constrained, to prevent it from ever surpassing human intelligence.”

I found this to be very contemplative and in some respects a love song to the human race. A reminder of how long we've existed and survived. While at the same time serving as a warning to look after each other and the world we live in with more respect, as we truly are more destructive than we give ourselves credit for.

As the book drew to a close, the final chapters were particularly poignant. Questions of memory, what makes-you-you, cloning, worship and the desire to belong and know your background hit the mark with me.

I’d like to read this again as there are so many finer nuances which I don’t feel I fully grasped with just the one reading. This is definitely a book to ponder about.

”The humans kept doing the same things: loving one another, hating one another, fighting one another…You’d think they might have come up with something else to try, but no matter how many times they went around, they couldn’t seem to change course .”

[s.penkevich [mental health hiatus]]

I was fairly disappointed to learn Kawakami's The Third Love is just...not coming out in the US now? BUT then I saw this is in September so I'm back to jumping up and down like an excited child waiting in line at the ice cream truck. An ice cream of imaginative literature, my friends!

[Spyros Batzios · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought that humans might naturally extinct; but equally, I am pretty sure that dinosaurs did not expect that either and yet it happened. If you think that our evolution will at some point cease and humans will disappear, what would you like the other species remaining after ourselves, to remember us for? What constitutes humanity for you? “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” by Hiromi Kawakami is set on a distant future where humans are on the verge of extinction. Biological engineering and cloning has evolved and people are produced of animal cells while they also possess abilities that were previously unknown to our race, like photosynthesis. The survival of humanity relies on the interbreeding of those new humans that are under the careful watch of the Mothers, a group of beings whose role is unknown until the last few chapters of the book. Kawakami writes beautifully and gives us a narrative that is full of symbolism and allegory. A profound philosophical insight on intelligence and consciousness. The final chapters are gorgeous and gladly shifted from the fragmented storytelling of the first 2/3 of the book. Friendly advice: read it quickly as this will hopefully ease your frustration on those parts of the book that don’t make completely sense; because at the end everything makes sense and the book becomes more than just a warning; it acts as a call to reimagine how we want to evolve as a species, not only with the strict biological sense, but also morally, emotionally and spiritually. The big question that remains to be answered in the last few pages of the book is can humans change before it is too late? Or will we, like other species before us, become a footnote in earth’s infinite history?

This is a book about humanity and existence. The deeper meaning of what it means to be human. Love, curiosity for learning, free thinking and belonging. About the desire to see what is there out in the world and the responsibility of making decisions. Predictions, prophecies and miracles. Faith and our disappearing thoughts. Being different and special. About the burden of our emotions. Our triumphs and flaws as a species. Losing trust on humankind. Violence, rebellion and control. It is also a story about extinction and falling civilizations. The cycle of life and death that is happening because it is meant to. Reproduction and low popular density. What defines life and the interaction between genes and environment. In addition, it is a book about AI and its general applicability and implications. The technological forces that shape us. Human intelligence, perception and the idea that our minds are infinite. The possibility of AI overpassing humans and taking over societies as a potential inheritor of the earth. Most of all though, this is a book about evolution and our capacity to change. Adaptability and innovation. Individuality and universality. Transformation and continuity. Our place in the grand scheme of existence. Making peace with our own decline and the hope of saving humanity. The fact that we are creatures intelligent enough to shape our world, but perhaps not wise enough to survive it.


This is a 4-4.5/5 for me!


Why should you read “Under the Eye of the Big Bird”?

Because it will make you contemplate how complicated human beings are through the wonder of evolution.
Because you will reflect on our inability to transform and our fear/jealousy of someone’s superiority.
Because it will help you see more clearly what it means to be alive and what makes us humans.
Because it will deliver to you an urgent message on human extinction and make you confront this possibility deeply and with honesty.
Because you will understand that time feels different to each one of us and normal does not exist as everybody’s normal is different from that of others.
Because you will realise that even though love and hate look like opposites, they are never neatly separated inside people, and they always mix together and melt into each other.
Because it will offer you a unique perspective on AI and its implications for humanity.


Favourite quotes:

“Things that live are things that die. In time”.

“What’s known can’t be forgotten, but what’s never been seen can’t be imagined”.

“If you wanna concern yourself with humanity, you can start with being concerned about yourself”.

“This place is always changing, but even change stops being change when you get used to it”.

“You’re a very human human. You create things, and you destroy more than you create”.

[The Speculative Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

An imaginative and disquieting take on the future of humanity. An entrancing read.

This was a fascinating read. In a world where humanity is nearing extinction, humans reform into small societies across the globe in a bid to survive, while mysterious and potentially malevolent forces guide them.

The timeline is purposely vague and disorienting, with hundreds or thousands of years passing from one chapter to the next. The aim is to see the broader strokes of the survival effort, but it kept me from fully connecting with any single character or society. 

While the pieces never fully clicked into place for me, I enjoyed the entire ride. Kawakami’s writing (via Asa Yoneda’s translation) is quite moving as it conveys a subtle beauty to the remade world. Fans of Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark will surely find familiarity in form and function here.

My thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize

A period of isolation would bring about gradual changes in the collective gene pool of each isolated region. This would disrupt the genetic flattening caused by an overabundance of humans on the planet, leading to the formation of groups with their own distinguishing genetic characteristics. Eventually, through mutation within, or perhaps interbreeding between these different groups, there should appear a new humanity, with new genes, and the potential for further evolution.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird is Asa Yoneda's translation of the 2016 Japanese original 大きな鳥にさらわれないようby 川上弘美 (Hiromi Kawakami). The Japanese title has, I believe, more a sense of "Don’t let the big bird get you", which is a line used in the story whose title is also given to the novel.

The author's Strange Weather in Tokyo (published in the US as The Briefcase - more literally would have been Sensei's Bag or The Teacher's Bag) was longlisted for the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (the previous name of the International Booker) as well as the Man Asian Literary Prize.

Kawakami has said - see below - that she has a preference for short-stories as they examine the micro changes of a particular moment, rather than a more macro accumulation (I particularly liked her mathematical take - short stories as velocity, and novels as absement), and this novel is a perfect illustration of her preferred technique - layering individual short stories together to form a full-length work.

Under the Big Bird indeed consists of 14 stories, set in a post catastrophic population collapse world, over thousands of years, a world whose nature becomes more clear as the novel progresses and the different snapshots cohere into a whole as to how humanity tried to avoid extinction:

Many nations had already vanished. Those that still remained were barely functioning as states. Jakob's plan was a last resort: an option that had, by then, ceased to be a choice. Communities of humans would be separated into a number of regions and isolated from one another completely.

Watchers would be placed in each region to maintain continuous observation over the population. All reproductive taboos would be lifted, while mechanisms of competition would be managed carefully in order to mitigate the effects of survival of the fittest and preserve as much genetic diversity as possible.

Putting the plan in place had been straightforward, given that the greater part of human religion, philosophy, and ideology had already been lost.

In this world, humans are part bred but part manufactured or cloned, under the benovelent (?) eye of Observers, and the care of non-human but humanoid Mothers. The stories roam over different communities - sometimes the same characters occur (e.g. the stories 'Love' and 'Changes' are the same incident told from two perspectives), but in some cases what seem recurrent characters - e.g. two individuals Ian and Jakob whose ideas drive this new world - are actually clones of much earlier generations, and the stories we read previously are now told as legends.

At times the stories feel rather whimsical (think Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, to me perhaps his weakest novel), but the last two stories provide another dimension.

The penultimate story Destination retells the Ian/Jakob 'origin' story from another angle, and touches on Artificial General Intelligence, and the last 'Are You There, God?' brings the story neatly full circle and indeed makes us question the set up we've witnessed from the first story.

Once you had the ability in hand to create neural networks with the same intellect as a human brain, there was no real chance of you being able to resist the temptation to see what they could do.
You initially called it experimental. Indeed, to begin with, Al was used tentatively, on a small scale, in limited spaces, within defined groups. You had no specific aims for it. Or perhaps you avoided giving it a purpose, whether intentionally or unconsciously.

Then some conflicts arose among you - and of course there were constant conflicts. Waging war is one of your abilities, and you are naturally eager to wield the powers you have - and you started to count on being able to use these enhanced processes in warfare.

You then called it essential.

Words are convenient. You base your values and affect on words, but the same words are already defined according to your inclinations. Meaning that your values and affect are constructed along the lines of your preferences themselves.

Up until the last chapters, I found this a little disappointing but a strong end - 3.5 stars, rounded down for now.

The judges' take

Hiromi Kawakami’s Under the Eye of the Big Bird tells the story of humanity’s evolution on an epic scale that spans as far into the future as the human imagination could possibly allow. In each of its chapters, separated by eons but gracefully unified under the crystalline clarity of Asa Yoneda’s seemingly timeless translation, a variegated cast of posthuman characters each interrogate what it means to be not an individual or a nation but an entire species, that unit of being we currently and urgently struggle so much to grasp, much to the cost to the planet we live on and our own survival.

ChatGPT translation of a report on an interview with Kawakami

What was particularly interesting in the interview was Kawakami’s perspective on capturing “moments” within her literary world. The world she weaves—one that is fleeting, permeating, and ultimately dissolving—is born from her drive to capture various sensations of passing moments. She referenced the works of Shinichi Fukuoka in relation to her creative approach of “trying to show things that vanish in an instant.” Fukuoka describes a biological view in which, although the molecules composing the body appear constant, they are actually in a state of ceaseless turnover, changing instant by instant. Kawakami remarked that this concept resonates deeply with her own creative awareness. That is, her literary world is imbued with the consciousness of grasping ever-changing moments within an apparently unchanging whole, a characteristic that is vividly inscribed and overflows throughout her works.

This obsession with "moments" also extends to Kawakami's creative process. For her, as someone who preferred writing short stories, a short story involves carefully examining a particular moment in detail and capturing the changes within that moment (which she compared to differentiation in mathematics). In contrast, a novel is a method of constructing an overall picture on a macroscopic scale, expressing the accumulation of the flow of time (which she likened to integration). Because of this, while she could fully savor the joy of writing through short stories, she found writing novels to be more challenging. Regarding this creative struggle, she shared the behind-the-scenes story of how she eventually became able to write novels—by layering dozens of individual short stories together to form a full-length work.For her, as someone who preferred writing short stories, a short story involves carefully examining a particular moment in detail and capturing the changes within that moment (which she compared to differentiation in mathematics). In contrast, a novel is a method of constructing an overall picture on a macroscopic scale, expressing the accumulation of the flow of time (which she likened to integration). Because of this, while she could fully savor the joy of writing through short stories, she found writing novels to be more challenging. Regarding this creative struggle, she shared the behind-the-scenes story of how she eventually became able to write novels—by layering dozens of individual short stories together to form a full-length work.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kawakami became one of my all time favorite authors last year when I read four of her books and gave three of them around 5 stars. This is another five star and for me the main standout in an exemplary ouevre of fiction. If I had to pick 5 books to read stranded on an island, this would be one of them. This is one of the best written pieces of fiction I have EVER come across and I love it with all my heart.

I am such a nitpicky reviewer, but there honestly is nothing here I would change. Beautiful, sad, hopeful, inspiring, thought provoking, scientific, fantastical, anthropological, there's nothing here this book isn't and it does it all exceedingly well. Just wow.

[Read By RodKelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

While reading Under the Eye of the Big Bird, I found myself wavering between appreciation for its ambition and frustration with its execution. I went into the novel blind, which is always something I enjoy. There’s a certain thrill in meeting a book on its own terms, without expectations.

In theory, I can appreciate speculative fiction that leans into abstraction or detachment, especially when the thematic focus is as ambitious as it is here. But I found myself continually bumping up against a kind of philosophical hollowness.

Kawakami gestures toward big questions—what is life, what is love, how can a species exist after centuries of repeating the same destructive behaviors—but rarely does she offer insights that feel particularly new or satisfying.

The novel’s vision of gender and social structure felt disappointingly reductive. In this imagined future, the world is organized around rigid, function-driven roles that reinforce heteronormative binaries: women exist primarily as caretakers and reproducers, while men are rare and often reduced to breeding tools.

The book presents itself as a profound meditation on survival and transformation, but offers very little that feels urgent or new. The second half, in particular, becomes increasingly didactic, spelling out themes that were already obvious. Kawakami’s vision for the fate of humanity seems to be one of resignation, not possibility, and while that may resonate for some, I found it a little annoying.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird reminded me a lot of Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, which I found similarly dull and self-serious. There’s a difference between subtlety and banality, and Under the Eye of the Big Bird too often leans toward the latter.

[endrju]

You'd think that if you'd imagined a (post)human that photosynthesizes, you'd also somehow push your imagination a bit further than "M seeks F to reproduce" (M and F are actual terms used). Not only do these (post)humans photosynthesize, they also eat each other for pure bliss. However, "M" and "F" are the beginning and the end of everything. In the whole novel, which imagines all the ways in which humans could (not) survive in a long history of hundreds of thousands of years with all sorts of technology, including cloning, genetic engineering, AI, etc., there's not a single mention of anything resembling a life outside of heteronormativity. Good riddance to such humanity. And to this novel.

[Quill&Queer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is an absolute fever dream. Telling the story of the earth towards it's potential end through a series of interconnected stories, we get a picture of clones, artificial intelligence and psychic abilities, and the story leaves us to try and piece what is happening together.

I really enjoyed this, although it could be a little vague at times I felt the characters shone through, and were memorable. There's a POV switch each chapter, and I enjoyed my time with each, while looking forward to the new piece of the story that the next would bring me.

[Ian Payton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of interconnected short stories that combine to build a unique view of a future dystopian Earth. Some intriguing ideas, let down by execution.

This is a patchwork view of a future where humanity is in decline, apparently cared for and monitored by the enigmatic “mothers” and the “watchers” that are sent out into each community. The connection between the stories, and the world that they describe, slowly build as the book progresses. And while the book spans thousands of years, the longevity of many of the recurring characters provides a continuity that helps link the stories together.

This should have been an enjoyable read, as each short story provides an intriguing glimpse across some powerful ideas around cloning, evolution, AI, social taboos, reproduction, and the nature of society. But, for me, the book suffers from being simultaneously too vague and too ambitious. Many ideas are touched on in a single story - a talking bird, people who can photosynthesise, people who are numbered rather than named, gender ambiguity, difficulty forming attachments - but many are underdeveloped, and have little or no broader relevance to the story.

There are 14 short stories, and by story 12 I was becoming frustrated that very few of the ideas or plot threads were coming together. Certain things did become clearer - like the isolation of individual communities, and the purpose of the “watchers” - but I was losing hope that the final 2 stories would provide much resolution.

And then story 13, “Destination”, is essentially a massive info dump that provides background and explanation for the entire context of the first 12 stories. This is written in the first person (from a notional perspective that also forms part of this explanation) and is directed to “humanity”, but feels like it is directed to the reader. Suddenly the voice of the author can be heard, in what came across to me as a slightly patronising and condescending tone, in which we get told a clumsy and muddled version of the author’s notion of things like AI, genetics and cloning. This is such a shame, as there were so many opportunities in the earlier stories where some “show, don’t tell” could have been used to fill out these details in a much more satisfying way that could also have given these earlier stories a greater richness.

This is rounded off with a final chapter that doubles down on the vagueness pioneered by the first few chapters. And I’m done.

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

It starts as a (pretty simple) dystopian story, but it turns out to be a great meditation on humanity, loneliness and our need to invent gods, empathy vs. competition, AI and its limits and finding a way to save ourselves.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel of interconnected short science fiction stories ultimately forms a satisfying whole. Most stories - set in a distant future where a system has been set up to avoid humanity's extinction - are warm and beautiful, but sufficiently incomplete and different from each other in time and place to create an intriguing puzzle.

I am not a big SF-reader but enjoyed it quite a lot. It zooms out and ponders humanity from a great distance, but at the same time it keeps the stories quite small.

[Selena Winters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see what this author was going for, but ultimately it felt like it was reaching for some kind of philosophical meaning, but ended up feeling incredibly hollow.

[jaz ₍ᐢ. ̫.ᐢ₎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Book 3 of my journey through the International Booker Prize! I am once again reading the entire shortlist, it has become a fun way to find new favourite books and challenge myself. I will be filming it all for my Youtube Channel!

In full transparency I finished this a few days ago, I decided to sit and marinate to see if the story made more sense to me as time progressed… it did and it didn’t.

A dystopian apocalyptic view of the world, humanity is on the brink. We journey through varying times and perspectives looking at each community struggling and determined to continue the growth of their own species.

The first 200 pages were so incredibly confusing, I felt like there was so many open ended stories and plot lines. Only once reaching the last quarter of the book did it all kind of fall into place and start to make sense. Bland writing but completely intentional, I think this would be a great bookclub book. The discussions I’ve had with my partner after reading this have been lengthy and so interesting. Very pertinent to the society we are living in at the moment so I can see why it was shortlisted. The letdown of this story was just the beginning, I felt like by the time we got to the explanation and understanding of what was going on the novel lost steam…

[Pavle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imam puno poštovanja prema autorima koji ne pišu istu knjigu iznova i iznova. Nekad je to prijatno, ne kažem da je uvek loše – otvoriti knjigu poznatog autora i znati šta te čeka. Ali kao pojava, jedan roman (i njegove varijacije) jedan pisac su daleko češća kombinacija nego obrnuto. Hiromi Kavakami ovde prelazi u sajfaj – pomalo kao Išiguro sa svojim žanrovskim eskapadama – i to radi fantastično.

Kavakamijevu sam ranije čitao kroz dva naslova koja zajedničko imaju fokus na male ljudske priče ispričane elegantnim stilom bez puno suvišnog. Tako je i ovde, međutim fokus je značajno širi; kroz nekoliko hiljada godina narativa, ovde se gomila i prilično potentno odgovara na manje više evergrin kontigent sajfaj pitanja – od (buduće) evolucije do veštačke inteligencije, sa primesom distopije. Ali stil je ono što opstaje, senzitivnost i senzualnost rečenice, i po tome je ovo jedan ekstremno jedinstven sajfaj. Zbog toga, moj početak internacionalne Bukerove longliste već potencijalno ima kraj – i ranog favorita čitanja 2025-e.

5

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Under the Eye of the Big Bird' exists of stories, all set in the same future world and more or less interlinked. Some stories I found really interesting, others not so much. It is well done and the ideas are great and original, but I expected a novel and because of that I probably wasn't totally invested in this.
Thank you Granta and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

[cass krug · Rating 4 out of 5]

a layered, complex, dystopian collection of interconnected short stories about the human race being near extinction. this book was so discomforting but in a way that is necessary at this point in time. it requires you to pay attention in order to make connections between the stories and to understand the way the planet changes throughout the course of the book, and because of that i think i’d get a lot out of a reread eventually.

i definitely see why this one was shortlisted for the international booker - so many poignant observations about how humans treat each other, our differences, technology, and the planet. i think i’ll be teasing apart my feelings about this one for a while. the style was very readable, but it was still a difficult read because of the content. i can’t necessarily pick a favorite story, but i do appreciate how the final story wrapped things up. i think if you enjoyed the employees by olga ravn or i who have never known men by jacqueline harpman, this is definitely one to check out!

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I requested this review copy because I thought it sounded sooo frick'n good, but instead it ended up being a little bit of a let down.

Less novel, and more a series of interconnected stories depicting the near extinction of the human race, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is a cautionary futuristic tale spanning hundreds and thousands of years. After a series of not completely clear catastrophic events, both human and AI driven, those remaining were forced to isolate into separate societies, which then set off interesting and unpredictable evolutionary chain reactions.

The stories are not told in any particular order, and while I enjoyed each one on its own individually, it was easier to find the connective threads between some, and was much much harder with others.

Honestly, having finished the book and knowing what I know now, I'm tempted to give it a second read because I am certain it will all come crashing together more cohesively and the order in which each story takes place will make so much more sense. And it might even earn a higher rating from me. But sadly, my gigantic TBR is calling, and I cannot afford to spend time rereading a book just to make it all make more sense.

Onward, my fellow readers.

(though, if you do end up reading this one, and after having a similar experience decide to reread it in order to make it make more sense, I'd love to know if that works!!)

(and also, can I just say how much I dislike this title? It makes me think of "under his eye" from Handmaids Tale and Sesame Street. Sigh.)

[John Caleb Grenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably beautiful, probably brilliant, probably hard won in the permeating persistence of its dreamy ethereal substance but like… holy CRAP I was bored. I haven’t been this bored since I last tried to scroll through one of Oprah’s book club’s meet the author instagram posts.

[⊹ Ellie ⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the far future, as humanity nears extinction, how can we be saved? If humans created AI, what happens when AI “births” humans in return? Really funky, experimental dystopia. I loved that each chapter feels like a standalone short story with a different main character, but they all piece together to form one big-picture narrative. Some of the stories are pleasant and intriguing, others are pure wtf material. I liked it a lot!

[Bella Azam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A profoundly vague, mysterious exploration on the future of humankind & what makes us human. Under The Eye of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, wonderfully translated by Asa Yoneda was a standout in a scifi realm like no others. Its both fascinating & equally frustrating at parts, slow, yet moving in some, Kawakami crafted an intricate look on humans on brink of extinction with focus on scientific, genetic makeup, visions of humanity, groups breeding in isolation to create new surviving species. The interconnected 14 short stories wildly varies from each other in this puzzling existence linked to form a fantastical utopia. The stories were told in interesting odd narratives but at the core its the perseverance of evolution to keep humans alive & strive in the new world

Each chapters were a maze of unknowns with clever execution of narratives from first POV, second POV, and 3rd POV. It introduced to you to the world of interbreeding communities of beings and species with animals genes, the cloning of one person to many others clones as me and me, creation of humans with supernatural or uncanny abilities of foreseeing the future, performing miracles, of a child who want to keep on dancing, a new species that able to live by photosynthesise, all of these groups of humans were separated into colony and scattered all over the world & observed by the watcher. They are all were taken care of by the mothers & once in a while by the great mothers. Its wonderfully bizarre, enrapturing, meticulously delicate in nature of how humans evolved in terms of technology & the ever growing AI but in the end, its also the humankind's greed, destructive traits that brought near extinction & destroyed our world. We moved forward, only to get backward with the advanced climate change, conflicts, death & slowly vanishing in the face of end of the world. This was a melancholic read of what we can expect of a bleak future awaiting us yet a powerful reminder of what we can try to change even if its small & insignificant.

Shortlisted for Booker Prize, I get the hype but reading this does takes time for me to push to the end. Its a book that need you to be in a proper space to fully appreciate it & by the end, I was pleasantly surprised by how it impact my perception.

Thank you to Definitely Books for review copy

[nusaybah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars, rtc but this may be my favourite from the shortlist so far!!

[victoria marie]

Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize

*

"You're a very human human. You create things, and you destroy more than you create."

What made a human human? I quickly scanned the mothers' minds. All I could get were the usual indistinct, amorphous ideas.

"It's coming," the mothers said.

"What is?" I asked.

"Change."

As the mothers said the word change, I sensed a ripple go through their hearts. They gathered the light about them and quivered. It was so dazzling I had to close my eyes. With my eyelids shutting out the room, I could see the mothers' hearts trembling all the more brightly in my mind.

—page 209

*

enjoyed reading this with the mysterious & wonderful linked stories shaping the novel, until too much of a reveal or something in the penultimate story especially… not much of a SF reader, but very glad that I went into this blindly & just let the book flow… entertaining, but wish it went deeper into bigger concepts plus characters throughout, rather than the rush at the end to reveal so much. but still, glad it was on the shortlist & to have experienced this writer!

_____

translated from the Japanese "Okina tori ni sarawarenai yo" (2016) by Asa Yoneda

from the judges:
Hiromi Kawakami's Under the Eye of the Big Bird tells the story of humanity's evolution on an epic scale that spans as far into the future as the human imagination could possibly allow. In each of its chapters, separated by eons but gracefully unified under the crystalline clarity of Asa Yoneda's seemingly timeless translation, a variegated cast of posthuman characters each interrogate what it means to be not an individual or a nation but an entire species, that unit of being we currently and urgently struggle so much to grasp, much to the cost to the planet we live on and our own survival.

[The Bookies' Favourite Bookclub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bookies’ Favourite is your go-to book club podcast for literary award shortlists. Currently reading our way through the International Booker Prize 2025!

We have finished our second book!

Our aggregate star rating for Under the Eye of the Big Bird is 3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads

Colin, publishing & creative writing expert

3.5 stars

Imagine trying to compress the human experience, themes of civilisation’s cyclical nature, the desire and talent for creation and destruction in us all, and the use of artificial intelligence and the roll it could play in our society’s dark future, alongside human-dolphin hybrids, clones of clones, human beings who can photosynthesise instead of eat, warging into birds via mental syncing, species genocide, telepathy, miracle working and curing of the sick, virginal births and many other wackadoodle ideas into one complete and cohesive story. Well, Hirmoi Kawakami has tried to do just that.

Taking these sci-fi themes and tropes, Kawakami has explored what our future could look like if depopulation and the destruction of the environment continues. Through a series of interwoven stories, she has created a tapestry of this modern human experience. She guides us through an interpretive story, rich with conversation starters and ripe brainteasers, and though many of the ideas explored are unique and interesting (especially her prophetic musings on our use of A.I.), with this jumping between multiple POVs, each chapter from a new character’s viewpoint, there’s a distinct lack of a ‘human’ to cling to. I understand she’s painting a great mythic brushstroke of human society, but I felt disconnect from most characters led to me finding the work sterile. I enjoyed Kawakami’s writing style, but if there had been a throughline POV, I think this novel would have been more effective.

I recommend this novel to those interested in humanity’s future, but I wish I had felt more for these humans and their search for a fix for their plight. A human novel lacking humanity, but still worth a read and a ponder.

Aaron, radio journalist

4 stars


Each chapter keeps you engaged & curious as you put the puzzle together. The more we learn about this world, the more invested we become. All while seeing ourselves reflected through the characters & themes which tackle the philosophy of humanity.


Lucy, Booker longlist devotee

3.5 stars


Of all the longlisted books for the International Booker Prize 2025, this was one I was looking forward to the least. I have not read much science fiction in the last few years and the science fiction that I have read has not lived up to the hype. So I was pleasantly surprised when I really enjoyed Under the Eye of the Big Bird. The short stories compounded to form a really deep and satisfying novel about the cyclical nature of humanity.

Big Bird starts out showing glimpses of human societies in a world vastly different from our own. These societies vary greatly from each other, which is revealed to have been purposely manufactured in order for humanity to evolve faster. Evolutionary deviations in humankind are believed to be the saviour of our doomed species. Kawakami seems to suggest throughout the book that this is a Sisyphean effort and that humans will always repeat cycles of creation and destruction.

Survival at any cost is a major theme throughout the novel. Ultimately humanity is in a Catch 22, if evolution is able to create a version of humanity that can be peaceful and coexist with the earth then it will lose its ability to fight for the life of all humans. Kawakami is posing a bleak dystopia where humanity is locked into a zero-sum game with the earth, and it cannot win, to win would be to no longer be human.

I found the role AI played in the novel refreshing. instead of an overarching villain, AI was a force that’s motives were hard to pin down. The writing varied between chapters, this gave each different strand or era of humanity a more realistic and individual feel. This worked particularly well in the chapters highlighting the relationships between humans within the communities and this really elevated the at times sterile writing.

I found the writing extremely jarring in the chapter about people who photosynthesize. An interview where you do not have the questions from the interviewer feels clunky. It took away from what would have been an interesting chapter. I felt the book dipped a bit at the end. Chapter thirteen outlined the entire plot of the novel, I hate over-explanation. The final chapter introduced too many new concepts and felt too rushed.

I gave this book three and half stars out of five, due to some of the writing issues highlighted above. Although I enjoyed the interlinked short stories and think this was one of the best ways to tell a story of this nature. Ultimately it makes the book more forgettable than if it had been a narrative from one character's point of view.


Hannah, bookworm
3 stars