Book Review: Swallows

Swallows
By Natsuo Kirino
Translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
Published by Canongate
ISBN-10: 1837264287, ISBN-13: 978-1837264285
Buy this book from Amazon UK

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Swallows is a contemporary novel about surrogacy by Natsuo Kirino. Originally published in Japanese in 2022, an English translation by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda is now available.

Riki is 29, poor, and living in Tokyo. Not dramatically poor – Japan is a first-world country – but realistically so. She struggles with low pay and insecure work, and most of her earnings go on renting a cramped apartment with neighbours who make her feel unsafe. She is ground-down and exhausted, and I think there are millennials in every major city who could relate.

At her admin job in a hospital, Riki's friend and colleague, who does sex work on the side to make ends meet, suggests they try egg donation. Sex work is a theme that recurs throughout the novel – in a nonjudgmental way – as a comparator in terms of the commodification of bodies, and the disconnect between the reproductive and recreational aspects of sex.

The woman who runs the donor recruitment office explains the demand for donor eggs from Japanese couples who want children who look like them. This immediately reminded me of a story we covered in BioNews a few years ago, where a Japanese woman gave up her baby for adoption after she discovered her sperm donor had lied, and his ethnicity was in fact Chinese rather than Japanese (see BioNews 1128).

One cycle of egg donation could pay two to three times Riki's monthly salary, plus a trip abroad, as egg donation is banned in Japan. However, the agent has a different proposal for Riki. A couple is looking for a surrogate: after multiple rounds of IVF and several miscarriages, the wife has now been told her eggs are too old.

The husband, a second-generation ballet dancer, feels compelled to pass on his 'elite genes'. His wealthy mother is equally keen to ensure a grandchild will inherit her fortune– rather than her daughter-in-law's family. Neither seems interested in caring for an infant or raising a child, except for dance training.

The wife, having borne the burden of extensive, unsuccessful treatment in her quest for a baby, is quietly coming to terms with a life without children, but her husband can't let it go. Riki's resemblance to the wife, the agent thinks, will encourage the wife to agree to the surrogacy plan, as the child will look like it is hers.

Riki struggles with the decision. She doesn't particularly want to be pregnant, and being a surrogate was not her idea. Ultimately, she accepts, for a sum of money that seems enormous to her: ten million yen (around £60,000 GBP). She isn't comfortable with her decision, but money – or lack of it – has controlled her every action for so long.

To facilitate the surrogacy arrangement: the intended parents divorce, and Riki enters an on-paper-only marriage with the intended father. This seems far-fetched, but upon further investigation, is more likely than it might first appear.

Surrogacy is not illegal in Japan, but there is no route to establish legal parenthood for the intended parents except for adoption. In terms of establishing surrogate pregnancies, fertility clinics cannot offer much help. IVF and donor insemination are mostly limited to married heterosexual couples, and the Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology prohibits its members from providing any assistance with surrogacy.

The novel's solution is ingenious. Marriage allows them to get around all these rules: it establishes legal parenthood for the intended father and allows them to access IUI through a fertility clinic. It is implied that at least some of the clinic staff suspect surrogacy, but are happy enough to proceed as they have plausible deniability. The intended parents will remarry after the birth.

As soon as she agrees to become a surrogate, the feeling of being commodified and controlled chafes at Riki. She begins to act impulsively – getting drunk at a reunion with old colleagues and sleeping with an ex – in contrast to the version of her character established in earlier chapters.

As with all novels, the plot is there to provide drama, and we must acknowledge that a straightforward, happy, altruistic surrogacy arrangement would not make the most thrilling read. However, there is much to enjoy: the relationship between the surrogate and intended parents has realistic tensions as well as moments of solidarity. None of the parties is one-dimensional, and even the pompous and self-regarding intended father has some changes of heart as fatherhood approaches.

The book is well researched, something I can't say about all the fictional media we review here at BioNews, and it always feels grounded. I admire how the author conveys Riki's circumstances, feelings and actions without resorting to the melodramatic or outlandish.

I won't spoil the ending, in case you want to read the novel yourself. It's not a perfect portrayal of surrogacy (although far from the worst), but a thoughtful read touching on class, power imbalance and gender roles in a society that is both like and unlike our own. I very much enjoyed it.

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Buy Swallows from Amazon UK.