Nipponia Nippon — Kazushige Abe

An off-kilter darkly ironic novella about a boy’s strange obsession with the Japanese crested ibis, from a Japanese literary star

Seventeen-year-old Haruo spends all his waking hours online, fixated on the endangered Japanese crested ibis, Nipponia Nippon. Alone in his Tokyo apartment, living off his parents’ indulgence, he descends into a fantasy world where he alone shares a bond with the last of these noble birds, their lives caged in the national conservation centre.

Haruo’s destiny becomes clear. He will free the birds―alive or dead―from an undeserving civilization. As Haruo’s emotional state grows increasingly erratic, he searches the internet for weapons and prepares for the night of reckoning.