- Hardcover: 236 pages
- Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0786241365
- ISBN-13: 978-0786241361
- Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 14.8 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,648,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Earthquake Bird
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
While many novelists are content these days to merely sketch in a few rudimentary characteristics for their protagonists, it's refreshing to encounter a book as ambitious as Susanna Jones' remarkable thriller The Earthquake Bird, which has no truck with such cursoriness. The central character in Jones' novel, Lucy Fly, is not only realised with richness and subtlety, but the reader is even allowed to change their mind about her as the revelations of the tale unfold--a rarity indeed these days. Not only that, Jones' book (her debut novel) is concisely written, making the amount she crams into this slim volume even more striking.
Set in Japan, The Earthquake Bird begins with an earth-tremor on its first page that echoes metaphorically through the book. Lucy is a young and insecure translator straining to survive in the bustling, impersonal city of Tokyo. She becomes the principal suspect in a murder case when her best friend Lily is killed. Initially, her dealings with the police present her as vulnerable and ill at ease (she has a quirky way of talking about herself in the third person), but revelations about her past begin to pull the metaphorical rug from beneath the reader's feet.
Jones' publishers invoke Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory in promoting the book, and the comparisons are not far-fetched. Like Banks' disturbing novel, the revelations here really do take the breath away. But there's more on offer than complex storytelling. Principally, this is a study of the mysteries of human character, and the ambiguity with which Lucy is presented has all of the skill that distinguished the brilliant novels of Iris Murdoch. Tokyo, too, is evoked with intriguing detail--the perfect backdrop for the steadily unfolding narrative:
The killer had a street stand selling noodles. He also had a dead body to dispose of. In order to avoid the fingerprint problem he had hacked off the corpse's hands. He then proceeded to boil the outer layers of skin off the hands by dropping them into the hot noodle broth, on the street, under the unknowing eyes of his hungry customers.--Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The stunning, prize-winning first mystery from the author of When Nights Were Cold
--This text refers to the
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set against a surreal backdrop of present day Japan, The Earthquake Bird opens with Lucy Fly, the narrator and main character, under arrest in a Japanese police station. Lucy is an English translator who seems content and competent with her new life in the East.
We know that something terrible has happened and Lucy is the prime suspect. As she tells her story, more and more details come to light about Lucy, her friends Lily and Teiji, and the reasons why she emigrated to Japan ten years previously. We are taken back to Lucy's solitary childhood in Yorkshire and events of her old life that still haunt her. Not everything about Lucy Fly is what it seems, I found myself hating her and loving her with the turn of each page!
Susanna Jones' prose has a refreshingly urgent pace, and child-like clarity. At the end, the reader is left feeling like they have been given a guided tour of Tokyo; of its language, noodle bars, tower blocks and transport system.
The Earthquake Bird is relatively short, but narrated in exquisite detail without a superfluous word, reminiscent of Barbara Vine at her darkest.
I found myself reading 'just one more chapter' until I had reached its thrilling climax in one sitting. A must read for anyone with an interest in Japanese culture or the complexities of the human mind. Superb!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I don't normally enjoy the train journey from Newcastle to Kings Cross, but I read this all the way and it was ace.
Given how complex the story is I found it easy to read, probably because it's so neatly written and brilliantly plotted.
The central character Lucy Fly is a strange fish, the type you're glad is tucked up in the pages so you can get to know her without having to meet.
Since reading it I've also bought it as a birthday present and lent my copy to a mate straight away - what more recommendation can I give? I think I'll be telling people about this book for months to come.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Susanna Jones' debut makes for an unsettling read. Although set in Japan, and thus providing (sometimes rather quirky) insight into the country and its population, the major landscape of The Earthquake Bird is Lucy's mind. She analyses everyone and everything, most of all herself, which she frequently refers to ironically in the third person. In this way, it reminded me of Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum, especially in Lucy's recollections of her early family life.
Lucy knows that she is "strange", and came to Japan to be far away from her East Yorkshire home. In Tokyo, she can be whoever she wants, which is perhaps the book's most compelling feature. Jones's book is spare and concise, and invites the reader to imagine what they would be like transplanted to another country. Lucy is sometimes arrogant, proud or just plain odd, but you are always eager to know what she is going to say, or do, next, what secret from her past she is going to reveal. Is she really capable of being a murderess?
This is a compelling read, so put aside some time (a rainy afternoon would catch the mood best) and read it all in one sitting. When you've finished, you'll probably want to go back to the beginning or straight to Tokyo.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Earthquake Bird
Having read and enjoyed Susanna Jones novel, When Nights Were Cold, I was keen to read more of her work. Read more
Published 1 month ago by S Riaz
Author in search of an ending
This, the third novel I've read by Susanna Jones, is in fact the first novel she wrote. And it shares the strengths and the weaknesses of the other two (though curiously, less of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Why did this win an award?
This was a reading group choice, selected on the strength of it having won the CWA Dagger for best First Crime Novel of 2001. What must the competition have been like if this won? Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alba52
Honest voice
I don't like crime novels. This is an exception. It says a novel of mystery on the cover. Perhaps I like mystery novels. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2008 by Lou Ice
delicate, evocative thriller
This story begins with the arrest of Lucy Fly, a translator living in modern-day Japan, for the murder of a fellow English woman. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2004 by RachelWalker
Not as good as the hype
I enjoyed this but to compare it to The Wasp Factory is a bit much. It really does not have the depth or invoke the sense of unease that Banks managed in his superior first novel. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2003 by Mr P
Haunting
This is an impressive debut novel. It's elliptical and elusive, but it haunted me for ages after I finished reading it. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2001
a beautiful Tokyo story
I loved this book. It is a novel that works beautifully in so many different ways. Lucy Fly is one of the most fascinating first person narrators I have come across. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2001
Wonderful first outing by a new author
I read "The Earthquake Bird" when it was first released in the UK. I normally wouldn't consider writing a review of a book that I had read months ago but in this case... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2001 by D. Kaplan
Too slow, the build up far too one-note
Much of this book is covered in flashbacks by the main character, Lucy Fly, covering her general life and background while under investigation for murder. Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2001
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