The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones

Author : Susanna Jones
Title : The Earthquake Bird
Publisher : Picador
Published  : 2001
Pages : 288
Genre : Mystery / Thriller

      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 prompted her to sever all links with her family back home? She was the last person to see the murdered girl alive, so why is 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...

     This week I seem to be continuing the theme of reading books I have watched the film of on Netflix. After The Silence Of The White City, I have moved to almost the other side of the world. For me, I have only ever read books about japan written by Japanese authors. There is a certain style that runs through them that I have never really found in authors from other parts of the world. So despite having seen the film I was curious to see if Jones wrote her book in a more western style or managed to capture a little of that Japanese style for her self?

     This is a book of complicated relationships, Lucy for the most part seems to struggle with forming long term attachments to people. As we get to know her through the course of this book it because apparent that something always happens and poor old Lucy is left on her own again. To me, she is an interesting character, she never comes across as unlikeable. She is friendly enough and can clearly start conversations from here there and everywhere. But I feel she also likes being the only westerner in her group. So all of this changes when Lily shows up things were bound to go a little off-kilter but many not this much.

     For her part, Lily does not mean to cause ripples in Lucy's carefully ordered pond. She is just looking for a little familiarity in a place that seems so different from her own. Having been fortunate enough to have visited Tokyo I can speak of it first hand that everything seems to be turned up to maximum when you first arrive. It can take a little while before things in your mind settle down. I think in any other situation these two probably would have faired a great deal better than they do. But this would have made for a completely different book. 

     For me, Jones has found a style for her book that fits the story perfectly. It finds it's self somewhere between western and eastern styles. It defiantly feels like a lot of those Japanese crime stories I've read but maybe a little more accessible than if you have never read one. There is also somewhat of a melancholy feeling to this book, for which I suppose is to be expected. On first meeting, Lucy everything in her life has already fallen apart. She feels tired and worn out like everything that has happened to her has left her curled up on the floor. 

     It is a book that whilst no that long, feels like you have covered a great deal of ground by the time you get to its climax. Lucy feels like a friend I have known my whole life her every secret laid bare to me. She is also someone that I wanted to take care of, Lucy seems like she is in need of a shoulder to cry on and a good hot drink. It is interesting how the author capture so much of what it feels like to be in Japan as a foreigner. It is something I have struggled to explain to others yet she seems to have achieved it so effortlessly.

     For the get-go, you feel this ominous underlying current it weaves its way around each interaction and revelation. I can not say this is your traditional whodunnit, It feels to me more about the tiny little actions that all lead up to something much great. None of this had to end the way it did but sometimes life just wont cut you a break