A mind-expanding, cheerfully dystopian new novel by Yoko Tawada, winner of the National Book Award Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as âthe land of sushi.â Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): âhomemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language.âAs 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 theyâre 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 Aliceâs Adventures in Wonderland or a surreal Wind in the Willows, but really is just another sui generis Yoko Tawada masterwork.
Price history
Mar 3, 2022
€14.72