Please note that this title is currently out of stock but is available for pre-order. While we don’t have an exact publishing date yet, it is expected to be available within approximately 4 to 6 weeks.
The Birdwatchers is a hypnotic literary novella about loneliness, attention, and the search for genuine connection in an age of constant distraction.
Set in a glass-bright Swiss city, Jean lives a life shaped by routine: corporate days, online nights, and a quiet sense of dislocation he cannot name. When a woman on his daily commute captures his attention, a chance misunderstanding draws him into a trio of amateur birdwatchers.
To remain close to the group, Jean adopts their rituals of stillness: early mornings by the lake, silent observation, learning how to watch. But birdwatching demands more than patience. It asks Jean to look inward, to confront the distance between longing and real connection, and to question what it means to truly see the world—and himself.
Written in precise, luminous prose, The Birdwatchers explores urban solitude, desire, and the fragile work of being present. Echoing the interior intensity of Jon Fosse and the clarity of Rachel Cusk, AJ Lawson’s striking debut novella offers an unforgettable meditation on how attention can reshape a life.
Praise for The Birdwatchers
“Psychologically exacting and intensely atmospheric.”
— Chris Riches, Daily Express
“A novel about watching and being watched, where longing and delusion blur into something dangerously real.”
— Richard Moriarty, The Sun
“Engrossing, entirely persuasive. I felt genuine shock. The world and the consciousness of the protagonist struck me as entirely original.”
— Ray Tallis, author of Aping
“Breath-taking… a compelling, emotionally and spiritually powerful book, one that speaks to our own age and, at the same time, stands outside time.”
— John Burnside
“Evocative, lyrical, and ultimately hopeful.”
— Thor Hanson, author of Feathers and Close to Home
“AJ Lawson has written a haunting meditation on modern life, on loneliness, performance, and the quiet terror of being seen but not truly known. With unsettling precision he explores the fragile space between appearance and reality, connection and display, and the selves we invent to survive. Disturbing, tender, and quietly profound, this is a book that stays with you long after it ends.”
— Robert Rinder (Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author)
AJ Lawson is an award-winning artist and writer of Scottish–Spanish descent. His paintings are held in private and public collections, including his portrait of the late poet John Burnside, which hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. He is co-founder and co-director of The Alpine Fellowship, a nonprofit foundation supporting the arts.
His writing has appeared in literary journals such as Studies in Photography, American Arts Quarterly, and Bare Hands Poetry Magazine, and he was shortlisted for the 2014 Bridport Poetry Prize. The Birdwatchers is his debut novella.
