Items related to The Earthquake Bird
Synopsis
In Jones's haunting debut novel, readers are taken inside the mind of Lucy, who has fled a painful past to work as a translator in Japan. It is there that she begins an affair with a secretive photographer named Teiji. But it is when Lucy and Teiji befriend Lily Bridges that Lucy's own life begins to fall apart.
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Review
Penzler Pick, August 2001: A bestseller in England, Susanna Jones's first novel is one of those books that grips you while you read and stays with you long after you've finished.
Lucy Fly is an English woman working as a translator in Tokyo. When the story opens she has been arrested for the murder of another English woman, Lily Bridges, whose partial remains have just been found. As Lucy is interrogated, she tells of her childhood in Yorkshire, her ability with languages, and her escape from her drab life to the relative anonymity of living in Japan. She also talks about her friendships: with the Japanese women with whom she works and sometimes socializes; with Teiji, a photographer with whom she is having an affair; and with Lily, who comes from the same part of Yorkshire as Lucy and who reminds Lucy of everything she is trying to escape.
And yet Lucy is drawn to Lily. Lily is working as a bartender, but in England she was a nurse and, when the two of them go on a hike together and Lucy is hurt, she is made comfortable by Lily's attentions. Even as we listen to Lucy, we feel that she may be hiding something from us. She doesn't tell us a great deal about her affair with Teiji, for instance. In fact, she admits that she doesn't remember much of their conversations, although she tells us that they must have talked a lot since she knows so much about him. Also disconcerting is her strange habit of lapsing into the third person when talking about herself.
As she reveals what she knows to the police--and to the reader--they, and we, become increasingly uncomfortable. The more we know about Lucy, the less we understand about her relationships with Teiji and Lily. When we finally do understand some of what she is saying, we are shocked.
This little gem of a book is a startlingly good debut. --Otto Penzler
About the Author
The release of this trade title ties in to the publication of the author's new hardcover, Waterlily (Mysterious Press, 3/03). Susanna Jones lives in Brighton, England.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPicador
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0330485032
- ISBN 13 9780330485036
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages224
- Rating
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