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Editorial Review Product Description
'Early this morning, several hours before my arrest, I was woken by an earth tremor. I mention the incident not to suggest that there was a connection - that somehow the fault lines in my life came crashing together in a form of a couple of policemen - for in Tokyo we have a quake like this every month. I am simply relating the sequence of events as it happened. It has been an unusual day and I would hate to forget anything ...' So begins "The Earthquake Bird", a haunting novel set in Japan which reveals a murder on its first page and takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly - a young, vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator. As Lucy is interrogated by the police she reveals her past to the reader, and it is a past which is dangerously ambiguous and compromising ...Why did Lucy leave England for the foreign anonymity of Japan ten years before, and what exactly had prompted her to sever all links with her family back home?She was the last person to see the murdered girl alive, so why was she not more forthcoming about the circumstances of their last meeting?As Lucy's story unfolds, it emerges that secrets, both past and present, obsess her waking life. A novel imbued with the chill of "The Wasp Factory" and the shock of "The Sculptress", this is the debut of a major new talent. 'The sentences may be lean and spare, but the murder on the first page heralds a weight and menace to this story that's strangely chilling ...This is a very compelling debut' - "Elle". 'Fast paced and claustrophobic ...a subtle portrait of how jealousy blooms from nothing' - "The Times". 'Compulsively imaginative ...a beautiful and compelling novel' - Colin Dexter. 'You'll find this story still lurking in the dark corners of your mind long after you've put the book down' - "Face".Amazon.com 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 ... Read more Customer Reviews (12) 
Compulsive
The Earthquake Bird is a compulsive read.The main character, Lucy Fly, starts out seeming quite normal (well, as normal as you can get when you're being questioned about a horrific murder by the police) but as the book progresses another side of her comes out and she becomes a very complex and intriguing woman.
The book is written in the first person narrative, but sometimes the narrator (Lucy Fly) starts talking about herself in the third person (e.g. Lucy is no oil painting).This device really works and it made me feel rather unsettled and was really effective in showing that Lucy has strange and hidden depths.The author has a wonderfully light touch, somehow managing to perfectly describe a person or place using only a few expertly chosen words.
One of the things I liked most about the book was how I felt transported to Japan and the streets of Tokyo while reading it.I learnt so much about the culture and geography.Lucy, as an English woman who has fled to Japan to forget about her past, was chillingly believable and surprisingly likeable.Her mysterious boyfriend and friend Lily were also very interesting and I found myself desperate to finish the book and uncover the truth behind the murder mystery.
This book has to be a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers or in-depth character studies of unusual and dark characters.The ending was very satisfying and also rather surprising.I can't wait to read another of Susanna Jones's novels.
Interesting but slow
"The Earthquake Bird" starts out well enough to hold you for a while, but as the book progresses it wears itself out. A huge mystery is set in the first few chapters in which a body has been found in Tokyo Bay, and our main character (Lucy) is undergoing questioning.Lucy goes through the entire book narrating much of her life in Japan and her friendship with the deceased. We are led to think this must have some sort of significance, and towards the end I was left waiting to see how this woman cracked. But the conclusion was very disapointing and I felt like I just read 100-some pages of nothing to do with the backbone of the story.
If you have some time on your hands give it a read, but I don't think it will leave you wanting more.
eerie
This book is highly recommended for those who are fond of psychological mysteries. If you like Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, I am pretty sure you will like this book.
Summary, no spoilers:
Lucy Fly is a 34 year old Englishwoman living in Toyko. She works there as a translator.
At the very beginning of the novel, Lucy is picked up by the Toyko police for questioning in the murder of her friend, Lily Bridges.
The story is told from the point of view of Lucy, as she backtracks to tell us the story of her upbringing in rural England, and the reasons she now lives and works in Toyko. As Lucy narrates, we are first introduced to her boyfriend, Teiji, and then to Lily, a young Englishwoman who has reasons of her own for her recent move to Toyko.
To say that Lucy is strange is to make a great understatement...and when Lucy starts referring to herself in third person you know something very weird is going on...
Highly recommended. Not only is this a good psychological mystery, this novel also gives you some insights on what it's like living in Japan.
Wonderful Debut
This is the stunning debut novel by Susanna Jones. The novel begins with an earthquake and an arrest for murder. This is the story of Lucy Fly, an English translator living in Tokyo. It begins at the end-the murder of her friend Lily and the disappearance of her lover Teiji-and guides the reader towards the truth of what happened to them. Jones jumps between the present-Lucy being interrogated by the police as a suspect-and what lead to these circumstances.
Living alone and utterly content with her life in Tokyo, Lucy meets Teiji one rainy night as he is photographing a puddle in Shinjuku. Teiji is lithe and obsessive and laconic about his past. Not understanding what he does with all of the photos he takes (Teiji claims nothing), one day Lucy sneaks into his flat and peers into the world he has recorded on film. Having opened the proverbial can of worms-and caught in the act when Teiji comes home-Lucy yields to an intense jealousy about the previous woman in his life.
This is compounded when Lily-an irritating, helpless nurse who befriends Lucy on the pretext of them both being from Yorkshire-and Teiji become involved on a trip that the three of them take to Sado Island. Lyrical in places, the novel is confident and insightful on the lives of the three main characters and on Japan itself. The earthquake-like ending will stay with you long after you have finished.
Eerie Psychological Suspense Novel, Great Debut
In this promising debut novel, Susanna Jones tells the story of a bright but disturbed British woman, Lucy Fly, who lives in Japan. Believing (incorrectly) that her actions during childhood caused her brothers death, Lucy stopped talking for three years and her family ignored her during most of her childhood. Escaping to Japan after leaving university, Lucy was content with her routine and a few friends.
The book is told through flashbacks as Lucy recalls events in her childhood and Japanese life that led to her questionning in a police station about the murder of a friend, Lily. As the story unfolds, you feel a sense of doom about the inevitable outcome. As we learn more about what happened on the day in question and factors that caused these events, we are treated to a very interesting slice of Japanese life--what it is like to live and work in Tokyo, the relationship with her Japanese boyfriend, and a trip to lovely Sado Island in northwest Japan. The characters of Lily, the Brit expatriot bartender befriended by Lucy, is well developed and more minor characters such as the Japanese women in a string quartet that Lucy joins also add to the pleasure. The Japanese boyfriend, Teiji, is an enigma who speaks little and acts strangely, making a good match for Lucy, also a misfit.
This is a book that you dont want to put down, and and due to its short length, you can reach the surprise conclusion with much pleasure in a short time. The only complaint I have is the unusual writing style that combines both first and third person narrative even in the same paragraph. However this does not take away from a thoroughly enjoyable first novel.
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So Much Potential Wasted in this Frustrating Book
