Hiromi Kawakami “Under the Eyes of the Big Bird” and “The Third Love”
Hiromi Kawakami (川上 弘美, Kawakami Hiromi, born 1958) is one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists known for her off-beat fiction, poetry, and literary criticism. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature. Her work has been adapted for film, and has been translated into more than 15 languages. In 2025, Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Asa Yoneda’s English translation of this collection, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
It is incredible that Hiromi Kawakami began writing at the age of thirty-six when she debuted as a short story writer of literary fiction — Kamisama (1994). “Incredible” because nowadays people want to achieve critical milestones before they have reached thirty, but to start a literary career in her mid-thirties is impressive. She has consistently won prestigious literary awards in Japan. It was her rewriting of the first short story “Kamisama” or “God” as a longer piece of speculative fiction that developed into Under the Eye of the Big Bird. She was prompted to write it after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011). At first, she was unable to write, but after two years she began to develop the story. It took many more years before the book was translated into English by Asa Yoneda and published by Granta in 2025.
Reading Under the Eye of the Big Bird is an unnerving experience. The loosely interconnected short stories, spanning geological eras, discussing the human race, evolution and the survival of the mutants/humans using stem cell technology, and then the appearance of artificial intelligence are eerie. The author began writing this piece of fiction in 2013. Reading it in 2025 feels as if it was written now and will continue to have value in the coming years too. For instance, her chapter on artificial intelligence, reads more like an essay, a ramble explaining AI to her more than to the reader. Yet, she has the knack of making the reader ponder and think while reading a story that at times feels almost absurd. It makes no sense but ultimately, the reader has to give in and accept what is presented as the story.
In 2024, Granta had published her novel The Third Love , translated into the English by Ted Goossen. Again, it is a plot that seems almost unbelievable at first but the reader has to give in to it. Riko, the protagonist, has married her childhood sweetheart but is trapped in the marriage. Then her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams. It is a story that develops at multiple levels.
Both the novels highlight the ability of Kawakami entering the mind of a woman and depicting her life, sometimes the oppressiveness of it is enhanced by her dull description of the character’s life. It is not easy to explain. The only choice is to experience it. Kawakami is not an easy writer to read. You have to be in that mind space to be able to engage with what she presents on the page. Her writing style that seems to oscillate between fiction and the dry academic essay-style infused into the prose forces the reader to be mentally alert. Perhaps it is a good thing? Who knows?! All that I know is that I am glad I read a couple of her Kawakami’s books. I will not forget them in a hurry.
24 May 2025
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