An acerbic, witty vision of contemporary Japan from one of the country's most decorated authors — bestselling, prizewinning Natsuo Kirino, author of Out.
Twenty-nine-year-old Riki is sick of her dead-end job, of struggling to get by ever since she moved to Tokyo from the country. So when someone offers her the chance to become a surrogate in return for a life-changing amount of money, it's hard to turn down. But how much of herself will she be forced to give away?
Retired ballet star Motoi and his wife, Yuko, have spent years trying to conceive. As Yuko begins to make peace with her childlessness, Motoi grows increasingly desperate for a child to whom he can pass on his elite genes. Their last resort is surrogacy: a business transaction, plain and simple. But as they try to exert ever more control over Riki, their contract with her starts to slip through their fingers…
Vibrating with the injustices of class and gender, tradition and power, Swallows is an acerbic, witty vision of contemporary Japan — and of a young woman's fight to preserve her dignity at any cost. Translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda.
Praise for Swallows
"Frank, tender, expansive, and radically embodied… Luminous." — Tess Gunty
"A timely and engrossing drama about desire, precarity, and the uses of a woman's body." — Ruth Ozeki
"A masterful feat of storytelling as well as a biting critique of gender, patrimony and class." — Julie Otsuka
"A dazzling and troubling feminist page turner." — Financial Times
About the author
Natsuo Kirino is one of Japan's most highly decorated authors — winner of both the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction for Out and the Naoki Prize for Soft Cheeks. In 2015 she was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon for her literary achievements. Swallows is her fifth novel to be translated into English; a Japanese TV adaptation aired in summer 2024 to great critical acclaim.
