An extract from Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda
An inventive and immersive speculative novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction – from the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo
Asa Yoneda
Asa Yoneda is a Japanese translator
Her work includes translations from Japanese of women and men from the contemporary to the early 20th century, and has been nominated for the PEN Translation Prize and the Otherwise Prize, among others. She teaches literary translation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Born in Osaka, she has lived in Tokyo, Southern California, and the south of England, most recently Bristol. She teaches literary translation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and serves as a judge for the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize for Japanese Literature.
Her English language translation of Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami is shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.
With crystalline clarity, it tells the story of humanity’s evolution on an epic scale
— The 2025 judges on Under the Eye of the Big Bird
Asa Yoneda on Under the Eye of the Big Bird
‘It’s taken the better part of a decade for this book to come out in English. Our world has definitely changed in the meantime, but as much as I wish it could have happened differently, I also wonder whether this hasn’t turned out to be the right time for Anglophone readers after all; in this story, ten years is but the turn of a page.’
Read the full interview here.
All nominated books
An inventive and immersive speculative novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction – from the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo
Translated by Asa Yoneda
