Scattered All Over the Earth
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as "the land of sushi." Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): "homemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language." As she searches for anyone who can still speak her mother tongue, Hiruko soon makes new friends. Her troupe travels to France, encountering an umami cooking competition; a dead whale; an ultra-nationalist named Breivik; unrequited love; Kakuzo robots; red herrings; uranium; an Andalusian matador. Episodic and mesmerizing scenes flash vividly along, and soon they're all next off to Stockholm.
With its intrepid band of companions, Scattered All Over the Earth (the first novel of a trilogy) may bring to mind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or a surreal Wind in the Willows, but really is just another sui generis Yoko Tawada masterwork.
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Community Reviews
feel like this was really cool conceptually but as an overall book it was a bit all over the place. some characters' perspectives went on for a long time that didn't have so much to do with the plot, other characters i didn't understand their motivations or didn't feel fleshed out enough. there were parts of the story i was super into and other parts i was waiting for the chapter to end. the idea of lost languages and culture and relearning to communicate with people and recreate linguistic roots was v interesting and i liked the sci fi/futuristic aspects of the story, but it's hard to rate this one on its whole scale.