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Susanna Jones

The Earthquake Bird Paperback – March 1, 2003

by Susanna Jones (Author)

4.2 263 ratings

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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.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Mysterious Press
Publication date

March 1, 2003
Dimensions

5 x 0.56 x 7.99 inches
ISBN-10

0446679755
ISBN-13

978-0446679756
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Editorial Reviews

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mysterious Press (March 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0446679755
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0446679756
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.56 x 7.99 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,558,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25,748 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #33,093 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #55,360 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.2 263 ratings

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4.2 out of 5

263 global ratings

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I Preferred the Netflix Movie to the Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 26, 2020

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I loved the Netflix movie! It is a quirky, atmospheric, suspense drama/murder mystery. It appears to be an accurate depiction of Japan, and it brought back memories of the month I spent in Japan a few years ago. I enjoyed the movie so much, I decided I had to read the book. I did get get a more detailed view, but there were also major differences (I am not giving any spoilers). And the movie is much improved - no question in my mind!
So definitely watch the movie! Then get the book, but only if you really feel the need.

One person found this helpful

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Steve P

A fresh approach to crime!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2013

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What an intriguing crime story - nothing like any crime I've read before. The crime is very much secondary to the character telling us of the events. The story starts off with Lucy being arrested and, while she is being interrogated, she tells of her life and events leading up to the crime. Some readers will hate the ending - I loved it - and I won't say more about it than that. Hard to believe this was the author's first novel. Not only that, she won an award for it. Beautifully written and the way she writes about Tokyo makes me want to go there and visit! Heartrending and deeply emotional, I couldn't wait to see how it turned out - and wish there was more now it's over!

3 people found this helpful

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Laura Watson

Hauntingly beautiful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2020

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Yet another movie I came across on Netflix; that turns out to be based on a great book. It's a debut novel filled with suspense, obsession, complicated friendships, guilt, forgiveness and redemption. Set in Japan the story follows Lucy, working as a transcriber, when she meets a Japanese photographer Teiji with secrets of his own. A fellow expat Lily comes in to the picture looking for a friend more familiar with the Japanese culture and language. Three does indeed become a crowd, but I won't reveal spoilers. I highly recommend both the book and film.

3 people found this helpful

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Wilhemina Wong

Interesting novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 21, 2019

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I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. It’s quite entertaining because the author has included some Japanese cultural elements as part of the story.

Although the movie was good, yet reading the book is much better. That’s because one could fully appreciate what the female lead, Lucy, was thinking and feeling throughout her Tokyo experience by reading the detailed description.

2 people found this helpful

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J. Eyler

The Earthquake Bird gets lost.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 8, 2020

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Starting out with so much promise, full of original humor and mystery the collapse of the story from the climax to conclusion of the story is so much more disappointing. For the sentence ” I squirted and rubbed away a stain that had been on the television screen for months. I hadn’t disturbed it before because it looked like Teiji’s dried semen and therefore it was precious” drops whole novel to 4 stars alone. The shadowy hollow ending forces a critique of incomplete wanting, now a generous 3 stars.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 15, 2019

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Enjoyable...very well written...brings you right into the heart of Tokyo ....now Tokyo is on my bucket list ...waiting for the Netflix movie 😛

One person found this helpful

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Retired Navy Man

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2019

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Superb writing. I enjoyed the interspersed Japanese. Makes me want to learn more of the language. Ms Jones is a great writer.

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Gene Stewart

Brilliantly written, elegant, concise psychological mystery.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 8, 2023

The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones
Penguin trade paperback edition

With a vaguely loopy unreliable narrator, a Brit in Japan, a translator with unconventional habits of wandering alone at night, the novel begins when she meets a Japanese weirdo night photographer taking photographs of puddles. Later she meets another Brit who happens to be from Yorkshire, too, a lost soul needing some help from an acclimated import.

When that acquaintance goes missing, and a dismembered body washes ashore in Tokyo bay, the identity of which being ambiguous, the translator is arrested for murder due to a nosy neighbor reporting her as the last person the missing woman was seen with. Arguing.

Most of the novel is her remembering as she sits in an interrogation room, contemptuous of the police, uncooperative and silent, courting and analyzing her own inner darkness.

Is she innocent? Is the photographer a serial killer? Is he stalking her? If so, is she drawn to him in a dark way?

Elegant writing keeps things in limited viewpoint, making events often surreal, definitely hazy. Memory is rarely reliable, facts are slippery depending on interpretation. Creepy, elegant, atmospheric, superb portraits are presented in suspenseful pacing. Tokyo is vivid in this novel, too.

Recommended for fans of Ruth Rendell but perhaps darker, stranger, The Earthquake Bird is a superb debut novel of literary mystery and psychological suspense that’s difficult to beat.

/ Gene Stewart

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Nicolas Garcia

Libro muy entretenido aunque la película no desmerece

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on October 31, 2021

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Pillé este libro porque la película, su visión del Japón de principios de los 90s, me fascinó y la verdad es que te mete bastante en materia, bien escrito, no se hace para nada largo y mantiene el suspense hasta casi el final (aún a pesar de que la película te desvele el final) pero creo que puede ser un buen complemento para un próximo viaje a la tierra del Sol Naciente; lo recomiendo. Está en inglés pero nada complicado.

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Matsu

Excellent gaijin view

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on August 13, 2017

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I had really wanted to give this book a 5-star rating. Any foreign person who has lived and worked in Japan, rather than being just a short-term tourist, will feel the depth and honesty of the depiction of life in Tokyo. I doubt that I've read a better description of life in Japan as a "gaijin". This is a love triangle murder story, which builds up to the finish over the course of the story. However, it just totally fell apart in the final pages, as if the author hit a deadline to be published so rushed off the final few pages. That really disappointed me as the rest of the book had been so well laid out and written. Regardless, it was a very good book and I'm glad I read it. But, might I suggest a different cover as the Japanese woman dressed in a yukata or kimono has nothing at all to do with the story and just reinforces the exotic Japan image!

3 people found this helpful

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NOBU

面白かった

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on June 27, 2013

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日本で暮らすイギリス人の目を通して語られる事件
些か、病的な傾向はあるにせよ、ストーリーの展開、文章の面白さは秀逸でした
その割に結末はあっさりだったのかな？
どう解釈するかは、読み手次第です

他の作品も読んでみたくなりました

One person found this helpful

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辞書好き

少し変わったミステリー

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on August 13, 2002

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著者のSusanna Jonesは教師としてまたラジオのシナリオ作家として日本に住んだことのあるイギリス人である。彼女のデビュー作であるこの作品は、海外で「簡潔な文章を自信を持って書いた作品」という評価を得たようだが、その評価は当を得ていると思う。
イギリスの女性が日本の男性と恋に陥る。そこにもう一人のイギリスの女性が登場し、殺人事件が起こる。その犯人は誰か、という点を、読者は主人公の独白から想像しようとするのだ。結末は読者の想像に任されているというのがこの作品の特徴である。
ミステリーや推理小説としてこの作品を読むと失望するだろう。むしろイギリス女性の日本に関する考えや観察を知るつもりで読むと面白いと思う。作者の旅行先の描写は見事で、小説の表現力に幅を持たせている
普段、分かりやすいアメリカのミステリー作品を読んでいる人は、「変化」のためにこのような作品も読むのもいいだろう。しかしあまりペーパーバックのミステリーを読み慣れていない人はすぐに飛びつくのはお勧めしない。この作品はどことなく「玄人好み」のところがあるからである。なお、英語は極めて分かりやすい。シドニーシェルダン級の読みやすさである。

13 people found this helpful

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夏野ひまわり

ぜひ英語で読んで欲しい本です。

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on October 30, 2002

Verified Purchase

ミステリーという中枢を外さないまま、異国での生活、恋愛関係が織り交ぜられ
ミステリー、旅行記・エッセイ、恋愛ストーリーの３本立てのような本です。
海外生活を少しでも経験したことのある人なら、懐かしく思えることでしょう。
日本で英語教師をされていた著者ならではの配慮か、英語はとてもシンプルで読みやすいです。
長さも５万語超で、ＰＢの約半分程度です。
これを翻訳してしまったら、どんなに名訳でもニュアンスは伝わらないだろうなと思います。
自分が海外に旅立ったつもりで、ぜひ英語で読んでみて欲しい本です。

12 people found this helpful

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