Yoko Tawada

A mind-expanding, cheerfully dystopian new novel about friendship, language, love, and climate change by Yoko Tawada, winner of the National Book Award

Scattered All Over the Earth

taylor miles hopkins

Julia Briganti

Eva Ströberg

Japanese literatures are always hit and miss. While I love Murakami books a lot, I might find other stories a little bit too odd for my taste. Is it the translation, or is it the storyline? Somehow books/stories from Japanese authors are always extra in terms of imaginations.

This book takes place somewhere in the future, where people backgrounds and native countries are no longer relevant. Some countries (Japan) are lost (climate change? tsunami?), and that people can no longer guess or remember where this sushi-land actually is? Some say sushi comes from Finland, and some Indians called Germany their native land. Confusing, but the cool part is that nobody really cares.

The most odd part of the story is that how it centers around Copenhagen, Denmark and Scandinavia. How Knut, the linguist student met Hiruko, who lives in Odense, and practicing her made up language Panska, who is also on the hunt of her former country-fellow (the sushi land?). Anyway, it's way too odd for my taste, but entertaining nonetheless.

a very fun and enthralling read. i love when characters are interested in a research topic and share it with us like osmosis. although the ending wasn’t completely satisfying it’s not surprising given the randomness the plot holds. 

amari

SCATTERED ALL OVER THE EARTH.

I really enjoyed this book, as a lover of linguistics, this book was such an exciting tale of humans and our ways with words. I loved the style in which Tawada describes and creates characters, they felt so real and tactile for me. The ending had me all mixed up, I still don’t know how to feel about it, but I really hope there’s another book to follow.

Lily Cooper

Weird. Good. The narrative thread is very clear but gets more complex through each character’s view on the situation, with everyone’s interpretation being wildly different. Recommend for linguistic enthusiasts or multi-lingual people.

Nina

Discussion on national identity and language was super beautiful.

The last chapter was super silly but touching.

Erika Kodama

Discussion on national identity and language was super beautiful.

The last chapter was super silly but touching.

Honestly not too sure what to make of this book. Some really beautiful writing like "wearing loneliness like a cardigan with a jacket over it" but the writing never seemed to have a point or build towards any overall direction. True to the book's title, the plot and writing is equally scattered - and personally not for me.

I did appreciate the ideas about language as a 1.5 generation immigrant who grew up with one language and now mainly uses another, but otherwise, "chaotic mess" seems fitting for this novel.

𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮

Honestly not too sure what to make of this book. Some really beautiful writing like "wearing loneliness like a cardigan with a jacket over it" but the writing never seemed to have a point or build towards any overall direction. True to the book's title, the plot and writing is equally scattered - and personally not for me.

I did appreciate the ideas about language as a 1.5 generation immigrant who grew up with one language and now mainly uses another, but otherwise, "chaotic mess" seems fitting for this novel.

I appreciated some of the social commentary but the ideas were kind of scattered all over the place (true to its title). for me, it felt as if the author started running with some interesting ideas but never actually made it to the finish line. It felt messy and confusing at times. I'd be interested in reading other books which discuss similar themes in a more cohesive & (imo) well-executed way.

stephanie

What a strange little book. Reading this felt like an illusion. The sci-fi is accessible and light. At times, it felt like a funny Black Mirror episode, if such a thing existed. 

There's something very appealing about the way the sentences flow after being translated from Japanese to English. I agree with another reviewer that this is a very human book—which means, at some times, it's quite boring. The zany cast of characters is fun, but you don't get to spend quite enough time with any one person, and the POVs suffer from a homogeneous "author voice." They're not distinct enough from each other to be distinguishable or interesting. But I think that added to its almost poetic tone and maybe was part of the book's point!

Worth a read if you like artsy portraits of humanity and don't mind a slow burn and very light plot.

Katelyn Caillouet

What a strange little book. Reading this felt like an illusion. The sci-fi is accessible and light. At times, it felt like a funny Black Mirror episode, if such a thing existed. 

There's something very appealing about the way the sentences flow after being translated from Japanese to English. I agree with another reviewer that this is a very human book—which means, at some times, it's quite boring. The zany cast of characters is fun, but you don't get to spend quite enough time with any one person, and the POVs suffer from a homogeneous "author voice." They're not distinct enough from each other to be distinguishable or interesting. But I think that added to its almost poetic tone and maybe was part of the book's point!

Worth a read if you like artsy portraits of humanity and don't mind a slow burn and very light plot.

I LOVED reading this book. I loved the experience of reading this book, how meta it kind of felt to think about how I was reading this book translated from Japanese in English but it was set in Europe where the characters speak German, Danish, a character's made-up language, etc. I loved how much this delved into language and the characters all felt so unique. i would want to write a book like this. it was a very human book.

Katie Chua

A bit of a slow read and could use a little more direction with plot. But there were such fruitful explorations on ideas of language, migration, given homes and families vs. chosen ones, exoticization, social impacts of climate disasters, etc. that this was still a very worthwhile read to me. Tawada’s writing has a good balance of playful and poetic and provides such a welcoming door for introspection. Looking forward to reading more (when future installments come out) to continue seeing more of Tawada’s perspective on these concepts  and to have some deeper understanding of plot line intentions and character arcs.

Cindy Lieberman

Quite a strange, slow, not-quite-Sci-fi novel about language in a future where borders and identities matter much less than they do now. Not enough hard science or action (or plot or compelling characters) for my taste.

Scattered All Over the Earth

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