Under the Eye of the Big Bird

by Asa Yoneda, Hiromi Kawakami · 2025

In a far‑future Earth on the brink of human extinction, scattered tribes survive under the watchful guidance of enigmatic "Mothers." Life has been reengineered: children are cultivated in factories from rabbit and dolphin cells, while others draw sustenance from water and light like plants. Across fourteen interlinked episodes that stretch over geological eons, Kawakami explores how love, reproduction, and connection might endure—or dissolve—when humanity must merge with alien beings to persist. A haunting blend of speculative science and lyrical pastoralism, the novel offers a sweeping meditation on what it means to be human when evolution itself is being rewritten.