Under the Eye of the Big Bird

In the far future, humanity is nearly extinct. Scattered across the planet in small tribes, people live under the watchful care of mysterious "Mothers." Some children are born from laboratories using the cells of dolphins and rabbits; others draw sustenance from light and water like plants. Love, connection, and reproduction have evolved—or unraveled—into something new and strange.

Told through fourteen interconnected episodes that span vast geological time, Under the Eye of the Big Bird reimagines life, evolution and the meaning of being human. At once poetic and philosophical, mournful and quietly hopeful, Kawakami’s novel is a genre-defying meditation on community, adaptation, and the fragile future of our species.

Shortlisted for The International Booker Prize.