15 Feb / Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani [in Booklist]
Polyglot Yoko Tawada, who writes in both Japanese and German, introduced an ursine character named Knut in Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2016) and opens her newest import with a same-named protagonist. Whether or not the two are related seems unlikely, yet in Tawada’s fascinating tale, synchronous serendipities are many.
Knut here is a Danish wannabe linguist who poses as a graduate student to meet Hiruko, a refugee center storyteller who’s guesting on a radio show and speaking fluently in a “homemade language,” a pan-Scandinavian amalgamation-of-sorts. Her country has disappeared, severing her from family, friends, and fellow citizens; an isolation that means she, and the world, will likely lose her specific language and cultural origins (no, sushi really isn’t Finnish, but who’s to prove otherwise?). The pair bond, embarking on a European journey in search of linguistic connection for Hiruko; meanwhile, their travel network grows quickly, welcoming quirky characters with intersecting longings for kinship.
Along the way, Tawada slyly interrogates shifting (disappearing) borders and populations, native (invented) identities, assumptions, and adaptations. Her most frequent translator, Margaret Mitsutani, brilliantly ciphers Tawada’s magnificently inventive wordplay.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, February 1, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2018 (Japan), 2022 (United States)