Kirino Natsuo
Canongate Books
14 August 2025
352
eBook - EPUB
Contemporary Fiction
ARC via NetGalley
Twenty-nine-year-old Riki is sick of her dead-end job, of struggling to get by ever since she moved to Tokyo from the country. So when someone offers her the chance to become a surrogate in return for a life-changing amount of money, it's hard to turn down. But how much of herself will she be forced to give away?
Retired ballet star Motoi and his wife, Yuko, have spent years trying to conceive. As Yuko begins to make peace with her childlessness, Motoi grows increasingly desperate for a child to whom he can pass on his elite genes. Their last resort is surrogacy; a business transaction, plain and simple. But as they try to exert ever more control over Riki, their contract with her starts to slip through their fingers . . .
Vibrating with the injustices of class and gender, tradition and power, Swallows is an acerbic, witty vision of contemporary Japan, and of a young woman’s fight to preserve her dignity – at any cost.
I found Swallows a very thought-provoking read with its depiction of power in-balance through wealth and gender. The premise was compelling and I was interested to keep reading to see how the situation would resolve by the end of the book. I found that finale satisfying overall and thought it rounded things off nicely for all the characters. The characters themselves were what let the book down a little for me though. I found their dialogue stilted and unbelievable at times, and I always felt a step detached from all of them and never came to care deeply about any of them; although that might have been intentional on the part of the author: to keep the reader at arm's length, making the work less emotional and more a rational consideration. Still, this was an interesting read if not a compelling one, so I am giving it four stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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