Anna Smaill’s 2015 debut novel, The Chimes, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Her second, Bird Life, although radically different, affirms she’s a highly gifted writer.
Set in Tokyo, the story is of two women, Yasuko, elegant, outwardly self-assured, even audacious, and Dinah, a young New Zealander who’s come to Japan to teach English. Dinah, mourning the recent suicide of her twin brother, Michael, a musical prodigy, is unsophisticated, naive and lost in a country that’s utterly inaccessible to her. This effect is emphasised by Smaill’s frequent use of Japanese terminology, apparently a deliberate choice to heighten the sense of Dinah’s alienation. When the two women meet, an intense, surreal bond forms between them. Yasuko, whose son, Jun, has estranged himself from her, is possessed of mystical powers and believes she’s the key to Dinah’s reclamation of life.
The prose is richly lyrical and creates a dream-like, haunted world. Sequences weave between the characters’ internal and external lives, alternately revealing and concealing but underscored by a sinister tension. Both Yasuko and Dinah have a precarious grasp on reality, one that’s distorted by grief, loss and mental illness. There’s no clear resolution other than the intimation that they will eventually be able to abandon the illusory lives in which they find comfort.
Smaill’s style has been likened to that of Murakami because of its dream-like quality and themes of magical realism. It’s an enthralling read, although I found the first third of the book prior to the actual meeting of the two women lacking in coherence. Once their relationship begins, the narrative becomes far more actively engaging.
Reviewed by Anne Green
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Smaill was born in Auckland in 1979. She began learning the violin at the age of seven and entered the performance music programme at Canterbury University at 17. Although she ultimately changed her degree to pursue writing. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Auckland and an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.
Her first book of poetry, The Violinist in Spring, was published by Victoria University Press in 2005. It was listed as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the New Zealand Listener. She and her husband, novelist Carl Shuker, lived in Tokyo for two years before moving to the United Kingdom. There she completed a PhD at University College London. From 2009 to 2012, she was a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire.
The Chimes was her debut novel. She lives on Wellington’s south coast with her husband and daughter.
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