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.
Scattered All Over The Earth is set in a future where Japan (the land of sushi) has given way to the ocean and its rising tides. It manages to be both a story of climate refugees raising questions of national identity, as well as a poetic homage to languages. She has lived in Germany for decades and even writes in both Japanese and German, and I can’t help but imagine how her experience of coming to Germany in the 1980s has influenced this book.
Tawada is a writer unlike any other I've encountered. I really enjoyed the narrative shifts throughout the book, and how each character brings a new perspective to the events that unfold among the group. As a lover of language, I particularly enjoyed the author's linguistic wordplay and musings on the relationship between language and identity. In the end, friendship trumps dystopia. It's oddly sweet and wholesome, despite it all.
I enjoyed this but also... I struggled with the racist/transphobic/fatphobic character descriptions. The story is set decades in the future with some intriguingly huge global landmarks and norms shifted. And Tawada writes each character sympathetically, even lovingly, but I struggled with some of her descriptive choices. Those felt like deliberate provocation on the author's part.
So I'm left unsure. I did put another book of hers (The Emissary) on hold at the library, because I really enjoyed the writing (except for these glaring issues.) I'm curious whether its an authorial problem, or whether these were choices unique to this story.
Review of 'Scattered All Over the Earth' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I would rate this so much higher, but I really did not appreciate how the trans woman supporting character was just misgendered left and right by other speakers. Really soured what was otherwise a great surreal experience
Review of 'Scattered All over the Earth' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I loved this book, and I think anyone interested in language in general, and Japanese in particular, would too. Tawada is from Japan, lives in Berlin, and writes books in both German and Japanese (this one was written in Japanese). I loved her take on languages, their influence on identity, and in particular national identity, when the nation in question no longer exists (here, Japan has ceased to exist and is now simply known as the "country of sushi").
Apparently this is the first book in a trilogy, which I am very happy about - can't wait for the other two books to be written/published!
A few quotes that I found particularly memorable, or just loved enough to take note of:
“No, I’m not a Buddhist. I’m a linguist.” “Is that a religion?” “Not really, but languages can make people happy, and show them what’s beyond death.”
"Yes, the idea …
I loved this book, and I think anyone interested in language in general, and Japanese in particular, would too. Tawada is from Japan, lives in Berlin, and writes books in both German and Japanese (this one was written in Japanese). I loved her take on languages, their influence on identity, and in particular national identity, when the nation in question no longer exists (here, Japan has ceased to exist and is now simply known as the "country of sushi").
Apparently this is the first book in a trilogy, which I am very happy about - can't wait for the other two books to be written/published!
A few quotes that I found particularly memorable, or just loved enough to take note of:
“No, I’m not a Buddhist. I’m a linguist.” “Is that a religion?” “Not really, but languages can make people happy, and show them what’s beyond death.”
"Yes, the idea of getting an extra identity just by learning a new language was exciting. I wasn’t ashamed of being an Eskimo, but a whole life with just one identity seemed kind of dull."
"But most native speakers are too busy to think much about language, and tend to use the same words and phrases all the time, whereas non-natives, who move back and forth between two languages, are always looking for new words and expressions — so who’s more likely to have a bigger vocabulary?"
"This word natsukashii seemed to be made of mist, a mist I was wandering through with unsteady steps. In Panska, I might have said something like “memories of the past are so delicious I want to eat them” instead."
And finally, probably the nerdiest way of saying you want to visit Japan
