"Scattered all over the Earth", by Yoko Tawada, translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani, is my first read of 2023 and my first book for #januaryinjapan. To be honest, it was actually my first listen, since I listened to it on audiobook.

The story is told through the voices of multiple characters living in a world where ecological catastrophes have led to the complete disappearance of entire countries, peoples, cultures, and languages. Through these characters, the author explores themes of identity, and what part language, culture, and even food play in the notion of identity. The book, I believe, is the first in a trilogy. I thought the ideas in this novel were very interesting, and I would definitely read more stories set in this same world, following the same or other characters.

The narration, performed by Cindy Kay, was great. Even though each character told their own story in a distinct voice, and there was only one narrator, I found it easy to keep up with who was speaking at one time. I also found it easy to immerse myself in the story, and visualize details from the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the audio arc. All opinions are my own. "Scattered all over the Earth", by Yoko Tawada, translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani, and narrated by Cindy Kay has been avaible since March 2022.

2.5 stars

A rather absurd (absurdist?) story of profound loneliness & the longing to belong. I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped; imo, it is less magical realism (which is how it was marketed) & more an internally inconsistent jumble of ideas that might be much more interesting if explored on a deeper level.

[What I liked:]

•The invention of a Pan-Scandinavian “language” is interesting, since several of the languages Hiroko (the Japanese MC) draws upon to create it are already mutually intelligible to varying degrees. But the idea of more & more creole-type languages/dialects emerging as climate change progresses & leads to mass displacements of populations is probably relevant to our global near future.

•The Danish grad student MC is a pretty likable character because of his earnest desire to learn more in his field of linguistics. That desire, unfortunately, gets derailed by his romantic/sexual desire for someone he is not honest with, & he in turn is manipulated by his possessive mother. That dampened my like of his character, but he had some character growth by the end at least.

•I will say that a few of the magical realist/absurd elements are somewhat amusing. One in particular is that this Japanese guy gets tired of snowy mountains, so he just bulldozes a bunch of major mountains in Japan! The mechanics of that are never really explained, but it is kinda funny in a Paul Bunyan-esque tall tale way, & does sorta contribute to the plot later on.

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•So much of this book makes no sense. For example, Japan has disappeared into the ocean due to global warming, presumably within the last 50 years. However, the Danish grad student MC knows *nothing* about Japan’s existence though he happens to know a lot about 20th century nations like East Germany & Yugoslavia which dissolved before Japan did. That’s just not plausible to me.

•Apparently growth hormone in the water makes salmon grow to the size of whales? & if humans eat them they can get pregnant with 20 fetuses with fish gills?? What the heck. I guess this does count as magical realism, but since the magical bits are few & far between & most are never really developed nor add much to the plot, they feel like irrelevant insertions.

•Hiroko often comments on Japanese things (foods, words, items, cultural concepts, etc.) that have apparently faded from known memory all across the world, which is quite interesting! (A Danish person thinks sushi originated in Finland, for example, which is plausible.) But some of the examples make no sense. Hiroko is amazed when a Danish person recognizes an artwork of a crane, since “cranes aren’t mentioned in Hans Christian Andersen stories”. But cranes live on every continent except South America & Antarctica! Did Japan’s disappearance trigger a massive die-out of cranes world wide, & also erase everyone’s memory of cranes (except hers)? Even if Hiroko specifically means red-crowned cranes (the ones famous in Japanese culture), it still doesn’t make sense, since there are populations of the same species in continental Asia.

•Hiroko claims Japanese people don’t care much about sex because sexual hormones had “died out”, evidenced by the lack of men with hairy chests. What? Why? How? This feels like a major issue that’s just glossed over.

CW: racism & ethnocentrism, unhealthy relationship dynamics

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

Scattered All Over the Earth is a dystopian novel, but it is not a "shocking" type in a manner that The Handmaid's Tale or 1984 are. It describes a near future that doesn't seem far-fetched at all, and as a result it provokes the reader to think about the choices he/she is making today.

The book follows six characters who become unlikely friends. Each person is from a very different background, and some are significantly more interesting (to me) than the others. Each has a different motivation to join the others on their journey. The majority of the book takes place in Scandinavia, and Germany - where a lot of displaced people end up (not unlike IRL, hey? 😉).

The author, Yōko Tawada, is a Japanese woman living in Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German languages, however, she chose Japanese for this novel. It is obvious that she tapped into her own experience of a Japanese woman living in Europe quite a bit while writing Scattered All Over the Earth. There is a lot of discussion on topics such as being treated as "exotic" or an "interesting oddity", not necessarily bad per se, but definitely not equal to the "locals". There is also this borderline unhealthy fascination with all things Japanese, from food to Buddhism, etc.

And then of course there is the matter of language....

One of Tawada's protagonists, Hiruko, is a displaced individual currently residing in Denmark. She is desperately trying to find someone, anyone really, from her home country, which suddenly disappeared. It is not 100% clear why, but it is implied that it's due to climate change. It is interesting that "Japan", or "Japanese" are never actually used in the book. Rather the country is referred to as "the land of sushi" 😀 So it is obvious that it is Japan, but perhaps the author did not want the readers to focus on the actual country of Japan, but think more in the lines of "this could happen to any archipelago, or even just a coastal region".

One of the most interesting concepts presented in Scattered All Over the Earth is that of "developing your own language". Due to being a climate refugee, Hiruko had to move a lot from one country to another, which did not give her enough time to properly learn each language. So instead she developed her own language, called "Panska" (short for Pan-Scandinavian). Panska doesn't follow any of the grammar and language rules of the typical Scandinavian languages, but nevertheless, is understandable to all.

As you might imagine there is a lot of discussion on the idea of globalization, displacement, and languages. What is more important: proper grammar, or understandability? Do our languages define us, and do we change when we start speaking different languages?

As someone who moved, and had to learn very different languages kind of fast, this idea is very interesting to me. Admittedly, I paused the audio more than once just to think it over, and gather my thoughts on the subject.

In some ways (but not in all) Scattered All Over the Earth reminded me of The Great Passage by Shion Miura. Both books talk a lot about words, and the importance of language in our lives. They are also similar as far as the pacing goes. For those of you who are not familiar with Japanese literature, Scattered All Over the Earth is quite typical in that it is slower, and almost demands pausing, and reflecting on the ideas presented in the book.

While it is a slower paced book, it is quite short (just over 200 pages) and is packed with tons of interesting ideas. Global warming, globalization, displacement, and the treatment of the displaced people, world economy, preserving culture vs environment, future of interpersonal relationships - these are just some of the topics discussed in Scattered All Over the Earth. Some are very well developed while others I found a bit boring, underdeveloped, and even confusing at times (Japanese folklore, anyone?? 😜🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️).

The audiobook was not necessarily bad, but I would probably recommend reading this one vs listening. There is just too much to think about, and I think it would be easier to stop as often as you need and ponder, vs constantly pausing the audio. Also, in the book, when Hiruko speaks English, she is whispering. That is because she is afraid that if someone finds out that she is fluent in English she will be forcefully sent to America (yep 😂). While there is nothing wrong with the narrator's whispering 🤣🤷‍♀️, I found this to be somewhat annoying (just a personal preference I guess).

Overall though, for such a small book, Scattered All Over the Earth definitely packs a punch. I think this would make an excellent book club choice - there is just so much to discuss!

My understanding is that this is the first of the trilogy. I will definitely be checking out the next book - need to know where the journey will take our friends next!

I got about 50% of the way through the audio and I just couldn't get through it because of the narrations. I felt like the characters kept mixing together and I couldn't differentiate between the characters. I would like to reread this physically. The writing was very interesting so I will definitely give this a second try.

This was just . . . confusing. I didn't finish it. I couldn't even get into the story because it was so confusing.

I'm not incredibly impressed by this one. I've been looking to push through titles that have been on my TBR for a while, and honestly if this one had not been an audiobook ARC, I don't think I would have made it through. I'm pretty hit or miss with works from Japan it looks like. Maybe it's the translation? Maybe I'm missing something magical in the original language?

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was weird but i would reread it again for sure and recommend, different from what i thought and i ended up liking it way more once i got into it

Wow! This book was amazing.

I'm a big fan of dystopian novels, but what Tawada delivers is something completely different from other books in this genre. To turn something that should be disheartening into a hopeful look at "the end of the world" is a true testament to this author's writing abilities.

I strongly recommend this one, even for those who aren't typically a fan of this genre.

Beautiful book that has become a new favorite for this year.

This story has a very unique cast of characters and premise. It reads almost as a series of short stories and characters studies that have been expertly woven together into an unusual story. I very much enjoyed it.

Scattered All Over The Earth tells the tale of a Japanese woman living in Europe after a natural disaster has completely destroyed the islands of Japan. The book is set in the not too distant future. Far enough out to be different, not so far as to be unrecognizable. The most unusual thing for me in reading this book, is that Japan has only been gone for a few years, but nobody remembers its name or even that it existed at all. Many Danish people believe that they invented sushi. There are no Japanese communities around Europe. There is apparently no Google Translate or Duolingo for the Japanese language anymore. We learn at one point that all of the Japanese culture and language websites have begun to disappear from the internet. The idea that a country could completely disappear and less than a decade later it would be totally forgotten is intriguing. It seems impossible, but I see how short our collective memories are over things that happened only a year or two ago, and suddenly it doesn't seem so far-fetched.

The story brings characters together from all over Europe. We learn that these seeming strangers sometimes have unseen connections to one another. The story toys with the ideas behind language and belonging. It's a unique and interesting story about people and language and communication. The ending to this particular story might seem strange or somehow unfinished, but to me it made perfect sense for the type of book that I was reading. Life experiences don't always have a grand conclusion. Sometimes if you're lucky, you make friends, and have an epiphany, and then go on with the rest of your life. I look forward to reading the other books in this series some day, but if the thought of a trilogy worries you, rest assured that this book stands comfortably on its own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing this audio ARC.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Yoko Tawada’s novel, Scattered All Over the Earth, is set in a future where Japan has been wiped from existence as well as the other long term effects of global warming have changed our planet’s entire landscape.
Written in a quirky, multiple POV you slowly begin to realize that there is a “7 degrees of separation” concept going on. I found it amusing putting together how exactly everyone knew each other throughout the years.

Hiruko is at the core of Tawada’s story as a displaced citizen from Japan searching for anyone who is from her homeland. Along the way Hiruko decides to make up her own language called Pan-Scandinavian. It is through Hiruko’s journey that Tawada allows you, the reader, to fully enjoy this book’s theme of language and identity.

Being an American reading this translated story, Tawada has left a lasting impression on how languages shape our everyday thoughts without even realizing it.
“The idea of getting an extra identity just by learning a new language was exciting.”

I was given the opportunity to listen to Scattered All Over The Earth as an ALC through Tantor Audio and ‎New Directions Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. If you’re looking for a book to escape into a dystopian future that isn’t too heavy, this is your book. I definitely will be purchasing this book for my personal collection!

I definitely prefer the physical version of this book - the nature of the choppy dialogue just didn't translate well to audio, and I felt like the voice of the narrator was hard to understand and was a bit too raspy. The story itself it just as mesmerizing as I remember, but the performance of the audio brought that down a bit.

Very interesting conceptual look at language, citizenship, and community. As a huge Murakami fan, I found favorable comparisons in this novel. Will definitely be on the lookout for more from this author.

Scattered All Over the Earth takes place in Europe, in a future when Japan has disappeared, and the global political landscape has dramatically changed. It is a multiple POV novel following an unlikely group of friends. I use the word friend, but that may not be the best descriptor. Rather, they are a group of people with varying degrees of connections who just accept each other as companions upon first meeting. Together, they embark on multiple trips, each for their own motivation. Hiruko is at the he center of this story. She is seeking someone (anyone) from her disappeared homeland, to once again speak her language and understand what has happened to the islands. Others join her due to their interest in linguistics, a romantic attraction to others in the group, or mere chance encounters.

At face value, the premise of this novel seemed so foreign to me. Even far fetched. Why would all these people who only superficially know each other travel through Europe together? Are the characters starved for connection? Why would they accept each other's extended company? The more I read, the less I questioned their relationships. Instead I began to enjoy the distinct facets of each relationship, and the way they changed in the presence of others.

To me, the best part of the novel were Yōko Tawada's treatment of language and identity. There are so many things in the novel that will challenge the way you may think about languageas a whole, and as it relates to identity. Hiruko's homemade language made me think about the way our language shapes our thoughts. Another character's lived experience will show you how language can change your identity altogether. It really was a delight to explore all the spaces language touches within us in this novel.

This was an interesting and intriguing book.

I have to liken it to [book:The Emissary|35407631], as it is by the same author. It was strange, and odd, and albeit hard to describe in words exactly what the plot was.

That being said, it was quite playful and fascinating at times.

I can't say it is my favorite type of writing, but very interesting if you like strange sci-fi fantasy books - particularly dystopian.

3.0/5

This was a unique story in which Japan no longer exists and is known merely as the "land of sushi". Hiruko, a displaced citizen from the area, travels from place to place using her own homemade language in search of others like herself. Through her travels, we meet a cast of memorable characters and learn about their own experiences in a world that's just a little different from our own.

I thought the concept of Scattered All Over the Earth was fresh and original. Knowing that it is the first book of a trilogy, I found much of its purpose was to lay the groundwork for a more adventuresome book two and three. That being said, I was sold on by the plot summary right away, so even if it wasn't filled with a ton of action, it kept me intrigued.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, I listened to this short book as an audiobook but wasn't too impressed with the narrator. Using both a male and female voice may have made it a little less confusing when it shifted from different characters' perspectives. Even so, I look forward to what's next from this writer.