Swallow
Steamy Urban Thriller Romance

3.5 stars This was a really interesting and relevant book with important commentary on motherhood and capitalism. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of any of the characters, I appreciate how complex and realistic their decisions and emotions were. Some of the conversations felt a little stiff and unreal......more

I've read Natsuo Kirino before and still think regularly about her book Out. I was pretty excited to dive into this read, but ultimately found it to be hemming and hawing about surrogacy for 75% of the book. This just didn't really land for me. The writing was solid and that bumped it up a bit in my......more

LOVEDDDD THIS! how much is a woman's womb worth? when riki finds herself desperately needing money, she decides to become a surrogate for a wealthy couple unable to conceive. with this decision comes a plethora of issues and riki must choose how much motherhood costs. a thought-provoking social comm......more

If you've read Natsuo Kirino before, you know that her Japan is not the one of big-eyed manga characters and Studio Ghibli fantasy. Her Japan is gritty and desperate, edgy, struggling. Swallows follows Riki, a 29 year old woman who saved every cent she could to escape her small town on Hokkaido and......more

Swallows by Natsuo Kirino offers sharp storytelling about a life as a poor woman in a big city. Kirino delves deep into sex, reproduction, motherhood, class, and gender through the life of Riki, a working class, rurally born, 29 year old in a dead end job who offers to be a surrogate for an affluent......more