One Morning Like a Bird

One Morning Like a Bird Synopsis

? Out now: The Land in Winter, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 ?

One Morning Like a Bird: set in Japan in the run-up to Pearl Harbour, the mesmerising tale of a young man forced to make life-changing decisions

'Cinematic'
Times Literary Supplement

'A real achievement'
Guardian

'Revelatory'
Sunday Times


Tokyo, 1940. While Japan's war against China escalates, young Yuji Takano clings to his cocooned life: his beloved evenings of French conversation at Monsieur Feneon's, visits to the bathhouse with friends, his books, his poetry.

But conscription looms and the mood turns against foreigners, just when Yuji gets entangled with Feneon's daughter. As the nation heads towards conflict with the Allies, Yuji must decide where his duty - and his heart - lies.

Praise for Andrew Miller

'Andrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight' Hilary Mantel

'One of our most skilful chroniclers of the human heart and mind' Sunday Times

'One of the best writers at work today' Telegraph

'A wonderful storyteller' Spectator

'One of those rare novelists who can rock up in any time and place and convincingly inhabit that particular historical moment' The Times