Scattered All Over the Earth
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4.0 • 11 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A mind-expanding, cheerfully dystopian new novel by Yoko Tawada, winner of the 2018 National Book Award
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.
Customer Reviews
Very Interesting — Recommend!
I originally did not know this book was the first in a trilogy and only now know that after reading it! It was cerebral and intertwined, but the story kept moving in a way that keeps you, not hooked, but, intrigued. I am personally fascinated with languages and this book played to that nicely but in a very niche way; I could see if you are not into that, this book could be too specific for you. Will I read the other two books? I just might!
Just no
Terrible unrealistic dialogue, Transphobic ideas, One note characters who have no redeeming qualities, and a plot line that is frankly impossible to follow