About the Book:
The second novel by Booker Prize longlisted author Anna Smaill. A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently.
In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another's lives.
Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to teach English and grieve the death of her brother, Michael, a troubled genius who was able to channel his problems into music as a classical pianist — until he wasn't. In the seemingly empty, eerie apartment block where Dinah has been housed, she sees Michael everywhere, even as she feels his absence sharply.
Yasuko is polished, precise, and keenly observant — of her students and colleagues at the language school, and of the natural world. When she was thirteen, animals began to speak to her, to tell her things she did not always want to hear. She has suppressed these powers for many years, but sometimes she allows them to resurface, to the dismay of her adult son, Jun. One day, she returns home, and Jun has gone. Even her special gifts cannot bring him back.
As these two women deal with their individual trauma, they form an unlikely friendship in which each will help the other to see a different possible world, as Smaill teases out the tension between our internal and external lives and asks what we lose by having to choose between them.
Published by Scribe Publications
Released 9 January 2024
My Thoughts:
This is the first novel I've read by New Zealand author, Anna Smaill, whose previous novel, The Chimes, was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Smaill writes with a casual intensity that is easy to find yourself immersed in. Her sense of place within her chosen setting is strong, she made me feel as though I was experiencing Japanese culture by osmosis through her characters. I've read a few other novels set in Japan, but they haven't necessarily given me a vivid sense of what the place is like. Smaill herself resided in Tokyo for two years, and I felt that shine through as she navigated her characters through their daily lives.
This story is rather complex, digging into themes of mental illness, grief, and loneliness. I found it absorbing and deeply moving. I would have liked greater resolution from the ending, it seemed to be headed in that direction but then it simply finished. I was left feeling a little bereft at the fate of both of the main characters. This aside, it's such an impressive story, the manner in which Smaill demonstrates the fine line between perception and reality and how subjective this can be.
It is my intention this year to read more from New Zealand authors. Bird Life was a great start to my reading year and an excellent first book to mark down for that challenge.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
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