"Linguists go on an adventure" was not on my bingo card for books I would love. Beautiful writing and utterly riveting. Can't wait for the sequels. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/scattered-all-over-the-earth-by-yoko-tawada-tr-m...

A really interesting read, several characters interlocking their lives in a world where Japan has mysteriously vanished – in fact, never existed, though there are plenty of Japanese people. Lots of challenging stuff about languages and the Japanese experience of Europe. Especially liked that some of the action is set in the German city of Trer. ( )

Set in a near future, climate change has caused several of our present-day countries to disappear. Protagonist Hiruko is a former resident of a country that no longer exists – it has been absorbed into the sea. As the story opens, she is living in Denmark. She is on a quest to find anyone who still knows her native tongue. During her search, she gradually assembles a small group of people who travel together. She meets a Danish linguistics student, a non-binary Indian immigrant, a German woman, and a sushi-chef from Greenland. Each has a special connection with linguistics.

Hiruko has created her own language, called Panska, which enables her to communicate with northern Europeans. The characters form an interesting, quirky bunch. It is a book about language, communications, and linguistics. It explores the concepts of homelands and migrations, and how these may change in the future. Even though it is dystopian, it has a certain charm, portraying how people try to do the best they can in less-than-ideal circumstances. The ending is open and full of irony. I read the English translation by Margaret Mitsutani. I look forward to reading more of Tawada’s catalogue.
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Sometime in the future, Japan is rumored to have sunk into the sea. There are climate refugees from Japan scattered elsewhere. As the world has warmed, fishing has been harder to sustain in Greenland's waters, but farming and gardening are much easier. Communication is largely by phone, travel by train and boat.

This book is meant to be the first of a trilogy, and this story does not feel complete, though it comes to a fair stopping point.

As they move, the climate refugees and others (students, etc) are faced with learning new languages. Much of this story is about communication. How people communicate, different languages, the struggles to learn a new language. And language gives us our ploy--Knut (Danish linguist) introduces himself to Hiroko (climate refugee) because he is so interested in her made-up Panska (pan-Scandinavian) language. She tell him how she wants to speak her native language (Japanese) again, but knows no one else who speaks it. They head to an Umami Conference in Germany where Tenzo, a sushi chef if going to be a presenter. Their travels continue as they meet more people and further look for another native speaker of Japanese.

This book is a little bit madcap travel story, a little bit serious climate fiction, and a lot about language and how people so identify with a language and "native speaker" status. ( )

At first, I was confused when the book ended so abruptly, but I am happy to discover that there will be other books after!
I really liked it - the concept, the execution. As a big fan of linguistics and sci-fi, this looked like a great book and I really liked it. Quite a lot of concepts were thrown in, including the use of words, identities and how people refer to others, archetypes, loss and some good surprises.
The world seems like a near future sci-fi but it's actually more like a parallel universe, where climate change has impacted the world even more than now. Hiruko, one of the main character is a climate refugee from Japan - Japan is mentioned in so many different ways, yet never mentioned even once, apart from the French word, Japon, as a sound and not a word, in one scene. Which, to me, screams Oulipo. (And after that I researched some papers about the author and the Oulipo (basically a group of artists writing with constraints) and found quite a few references.)
As Hiruko tries to find traces of her native language, she has also created a pan-Scandinavian language to communicate with people, and soon a stream of people follow her on her quest for varied reasons, including a love for linguistics, love for someone else, etc.
A lot of the events I found were quite heavy, but the author really tried to portray them neutrally, which isn't always working as she decided to write about them in the first place, and it can be a bit dissonant at time, probably because of my own expectations.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and would pick the next one.

I want to thank NetGalley and Granta Publications for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review. ( )