Description
In Tokyo, Riki—scraping by on precarious work and discount meals—sees a way out when an egg-donation agency offers life-changing money. Matched with a wealthy couple desperate for a child, she finds herself drawn into a carefully managed arrangement that feels almost too perfect, even as the boundaries of consent, identity, and control begin to blur. As the couple’s long struggle with infertility collides with legal gray areas and competing moral viewpoints, the story widens to include the people orbiting the deal: a former ballet star’s obsession with solutions, a wife’s fragile hope, and a chorus of friends and professionals who interpret motherhood through their own desires and fears. With Natsuo Kirino’s sharp, darkly comic edge, this novel interrogates bodily autonomy, class inequality, and what society demands from women—asking, at every turn, whether money can truly purchase agency, love, or happiness.
Available Editions
paperback
Knopf
Published Sep 9, 2025
353 pages
ISBN: 9780593804094
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Details
First Published
2025
Language
jpn
Translation
From: jpn
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Swallows by Natsuo Kirino.