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The Birdwatchers
by AJ Lawson
'Breath - taking'
John Burnside
'Psychologically exacting and intensely atmospheric'
Chris Riches, Daily Express
'Engrossing, entirely persuasive'
Ray Tallis
'A novel about watching and being watched, where longing and delusion blur into something dangerously real'
Richard Moriarty, The Sun
Coming March 2026
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)
Set in a pristine Swiss city, Jean drifts through curated images, outsourced desire, and the glossy unreality of a life mediated by the digital gaze. When a stranger on a train stirs something long dormant, he finds himself drawn into the obsessive, devotional world of birdwatching, here, amid species, simulations, violence, and moments of authenticity, meaning might still be glimpsed.
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AJ Lawson is an award-winning artist and writer of Scottish–Spanish descent. His paintings are held in private and public collections, including the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. He is co-founder 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.
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The Birdwatchers is his debut novella.
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Contact
For Press and Speaking Engagements:
info@thebirdwatchers.org
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