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.