Swallows
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kirino (Real World) serves up an entertaining and thought-provoking burlesque of the fertility industry in Tokyo. Office temp Riki Ōishi, 29, hopes to raise money by donating her eggs. During an interview with a reproductive agency, she's offered a far more lucrative opportunity: to serve as a surrogate mother for the agency's wealthy middle-aged clients Motoi and Yuko Kusaoke. Motoi, a former ballet star, is determined at all costs to pass on his genes. Despite being torn on whether to sacrifice her bodily autonomy in exchange for financial stability, Riki agrees to meet the Kusaokes to discuss the arrangement. It's a sacrifice for the couple, too, especially Yuko, whose IVF treatments failed, because according to Japanese law they must divorce and Riki must marry Motoi before she can be artificially inseminated. The parties come to terms, though, for the unthinkable sum of 10 million yen. Riki then chafes at Motoi's demands and blows a great deal of the down payment on a male sex worker. Yuko, meanwhile, has increasing doubts about the arrangement, especially after Riki gets pregnant and tells Yuko that she's not sure the child is Motoi's. Kirino builds tension with surprising twists as each of the three main characters contends with their shifting feelings about parenthood. This will keep readers glued to the page.
