Scattered All Over the Earth

By: Yoko Tawada, Margaret Mitsutani - translator

Narrated by: Cindy Kay

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 "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.

©2018 Yoko Tawada; Translation copyright 2022 by Margaret Mitsutani (P)2022 Tantor

The whispering narrator is too hard to hear

The narrator whispers every time a certain character speaks, and it’s way too hard to hear

Interesting premise

It was slow and meandering. ideas were chill but no plot or character arcs to follow.

Incoherent

This novel reads like an undergraduate’s attempt at writing fiction. Completely lacking any coherence to a plot, and the characters are bafflingly stupid. Quit listening about 3 chapters in. Don’t waste your time

Scattered

As the title suggest but o find it intriguing and interesting. there are many cultural an linguistic juxtapositions. Attempts of cross cultural communication and ethnic boundaries
Zeljko Zic

No plot, no world building

Disjointed conversations, no explanation about what the world is like 5 chapters in, boring subject matter, likely because there is little to no character development. Each chapter is from a different character’s perspective, but the author doesn’t take the time to introduce you to the characters.

Wish I could return this and get my credit back