Author(s): Kazushige Abe (Author) , Kerim Yasar (Translated by)

Novel | Translated fiction | Japan

An off-kilter, darkly ironic novella from a Japanese literary star - part of Pushkin's second Japanese Novella series

 Isolated in his Tokyo apartment, seventeen-year-old Haruo spends all his time online, researching the plight of the endangered Japanese crested ibis, Nipponia Nippon. Living on an allowance from his parents, he drops ever further into a fantasy world in which he alone shares a special connection with the last of these noble birds, held at a conservation centre on the island of Sado.

His conclusion is simple: it is his destiny to free the birds from a society that does not appreciate them, by whatever means necessary. With his emotional state becoming increasingly erratic, he begins to source weapons and prepares for a reckoning.

Author Biography: Kazushige Abe is one of Japan's pre-eminent contemporary writers. A graduate of the Japanese Film School in Tokyo, he worked as an assistant director before turning his hand to writing. Since winning the Gunzo New Writers' Prize for his first novel, American Night, he has been awarded several of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, including the Sei Ito Award, the Mainichi Culture Award, the Akutagawa Prize and the Tanizaki Prize.