{"product_id":"swallows-a-novel-paperback","title":"Swallows: A Novel (Paperback)","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhen a young single woman in Tokyo decides she’s ready to\nsell anything—even her womb—to escape the precarity of her life, an agency\npairs her with a wealthy couple desperate to have a child. The match seems made\nin heaven. She even looks a little like the wife. But is anything ever that\nsimple?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nNothing has ever gone right for Riki. She left her boring hometown in Hokkaido,\nwhere she worked at a nursing home, for a better life in Tokyo. But as a temp\nin the big city she has no job security, and barely scrapes by. She eats the\nsame old discount boiled egg for lunch every day, sometimes for dinner, too.\nMany of her peers have to take on a side hustle just to make ends meet. So when\nher friend discovers an agency offering a hefty sum for egg donation, both leap\nat the chance for an interview.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nMeanwhile, former ballet star Motoi Kusaoke and his wife, Yuko, have been\ntrying to conceive for years. After trying what feels like every available\noption, it seems futile—until Motoi dives deep into his research and learns\nthat, while surrogacy is technically illegal in Japan, there is a company\nthat’s found a loophole.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nBefore long, everyone has an opinion on the matter: from Yuko’s sex-obsessed,\nasexual best friend, to Motoi’s controlling prima ballerina mother, and even\nthe affable sex-worker-slash-therapist that Riki has been to a couple of times,\nafter she accepted a down payment to be a surrogate.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nAcutely funny and addictively page-turning, \u003ci\u003eSwallows \u003c\/i\u003epulls at\nthe seams of society, reassessing our understanding of motherhood, self-worth,\nbodily autonomy, and class. What does it mean to be “in control”? And can money\nreally buy happiness?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eNATSUO KIRINO\u003c\/b\u003e, born in 1951, is one of the most\npopular literary writers in modern Japan. She won the Grand Prix for Crime\nFiction in Japan for her 1998 novel \u003ci\u003eOut\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as one of Japan’s\nmajor literary awards—the Naoki Prize—for \u003ci\u003eSoft Cheeks \u003c\/i\u003e(coming\nsoon from Knopf) the following year. Several of her books have also been turned\ninto feature movies. \u003ci\u003eOut \u003c\/i\u003ewas the first of her novels to appear\nin English and was nominated for an Edgar Award. She lives in Japan.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eLISA HOFMANN-KURODA\u003c\/b\u003e is a literary translator. Born in Tokyo, raised in\nTexas, she is the co-translator of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's \u003ci\u003eKappa\u003c\/i\u003e (New\nDirections, 2023), Yuko Tsushima's \u003ci\u003eWildcat Dome\u003c\/i\u003e (FSG, 2025),\nYoko Tawada's \u003ci\u003eExophony\u003c\/i\u003e (New Directions, 2025) and Natsuo\nKirino's \u003ci\u003eSwallows\u003c\/i\u003e (Knopf, 2025). She lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMES DISTRIBUTION PTE LTD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45710408155343,"sku":"9780307387493","price":22.89,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0574\/5662\/3823\/files\/download_20f0d3ad-c92b-4524-b162-ca39ba987086.jpg?v=1786499054","url":"https:\/\/popular.com.sg\/products\/swallows-a-novel-paperback","provider":"Popular Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}