Swallows

Natsuo Kirino's novels bring us into direct contact with human life. Her fearless pen forces us to confront the ugliness, intensity and depth of our own desires, to the point that we cannot look away. But just as those desires reach a fever-pitch, she restores our faith in humanity, in a way that only Kirino can. The relentless beauty of her stories leaves me breathless every time -- MIEKO KAWAKAMI
Frank, tender, expansive, and radically embodied, Swallows centres the commodification of female fertility to explore how people live, love, work, dream and die today. Luminous -- TESS GUNTY
A timely and engrossing drama about desire, precarity, and the uses of a woman's body. Kirino's psychologically compelling and sharp-witted storytelling draws us into her characters' lives, leaving us to answer: do our bodies have a price and who gets to decide? -- RUTH OZEKI
A masterful feat of storytelling as well as a biting critique of gender, patrimony and class. . . A writer in effortless command of her craft, Kirino brilliantly upends our expectations at every twist and turn. Just when you thought things could not get any more complicated, she deftly ups the ante. The resulting tension builds to a startling ending that both disturbs and delights -- JULIE OTSUKA
Natsuo Kirino teases out the question "who does a child belong to?" - while confronting the gender assumptions and economic and power imbalances of contemporary Japanese society . . . Kirino somersaults her way to a suspenseful conclusion in a dazzling and troubling feminist page turner * * Financial Times * *
Kirino's novel asks us not to forget the "baby-making machines" at risk of becoming afterthoughts to the technological marvel of surrogacy. Swallows, with its unforgiving world and heavy themes, ultimately proves a thoughtful meditation on the dehumanizing underbelly of capitalist society * * Asian Review of Books * *
This acerbic novel explores the ramifications of a controversial topic in Japan: surrogacy * * New Yorker * *
Kirino's novel reveals the ugly, awkward, frequently embarrassing thoughts we're too ashamed to say out loud, and the inner, anxious dialogue we often engage in with ourselves - all of which make for great reading * * Washington Post * *
In Swallows, with its timely pulse on the intersections of class division and reproductive issues, Kirino illuminates the divisive realities of 21st-century capitalism, where everything is transactional - even motherhood * * Japan Times * *
Swallows is a compelling read, with characters that continually take you by surprise and it's perceptive about class, money and gender politics * * Mail on Sunday * *