Review by Booklist Review
Tawada's 2022 National Book Award finalist, Scattered All over the Earth, launched a trilogy, which continues with Stars and is scheduled to conclude with the forthcoming Islands of the Sun (published in Japan in 2022). For newbies and returnees wanting a refresher, Tawada opens with detailed cast descriptions followed by Earth's summary. The effect is not unlike an urgent catching-up, as if Tawada is hoping to promptly instill a sense of familiar connection in preparation for continuing an essential conversation already in progress about language, identity, borders, and global disruptions and adaptations. All eight of Earth's characters, whose unusual relationships revolve around country-less linguistic inventor Hiruko, return here. They're each drawn to Copenhagen, where silent Susanoo, Hiruko's only known compatriot, is currently under the rather unorthodox care of aphasia specialist Dr. Velmer. Each eventually appear by Susanoo's side, their multilayered journeys revealed in their titular chapters. Unexpected kinships are revealed, including two young hospital staff members with a language of their own. Mitsutani, thankfully, returns as Tawada's translator-of-choice, again adroitly parsing anglophone equivalents of the renowned polyglot's intricate wordplay.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Tawada continues the globe-trotting, yarn-spinning, and wordplay of Scattered All Over the Earth in her inventive latest, the second in a proposed trilogy set in the near future. Hiruko, the curious wanderer introduced in Scattered, is back, along with the friends she's made on her travels, including the rugged Nanook, an Eskimo from Greenland and former sushi chef; the Danish linguist Knut; and Knut's contemplative mother, Inga, who sponsored Nanook's education in Copenhagen. Ever since Hiruko's homeland of Japan, now known as the Land of Sushi, disappeared under the rising sea, she's been traveling, hoping to find someone who speaks her language. Instead, she and her companions share new phrases with those they encounter. In Germany, Hiruko and Knut meet Akash, an Indian traveler in the midst of gender transition, who coins the phrase "packed-train-yoga" ("a way to kill time when you can't get a seat on the train"; "remember to restrain all movements that can be seen from the outside"). Meanwhile, back in Denmark, Inga worries about Knut and recalls how when she gave birth to him, she felt "swaddled in orange air tinged with pink." At the heart of the episodic narrative is a meditation on the nature of identity, as Nanook marvels at being mistaken for Korean as a student abroad. Tawada finds a subtly different voice for each character, adding to the linguistic stew, which simmers into a captivating Decameron-like tale. This is sublime. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Tawada's madcap band of friends continues their wandering in a sequel toScattered All Over the Earth (2022). Concerned with finding another surviving native speaker from her lost homeland--presumably Japan after an environmental disaster--so she can converse in her mother tongue, Hiruko and her growing group of idiosyncratic searchers located Susanoo, who was working as a sushi chef in France. To the group's chagrin, Hiruko's countryman appears to be aphasic. One of the group, Knut, refers Susanoo to a doctor he knows in Copenhagen for treatment. In each character's voice, in successive chapters, the story of how the group expanded and how they each found their (often circuitous) way to Copenhagen is told. Backstories are further revealed and the circle of friends grows, but the group continues to view itself as a unit seeking to help one of their own. Dreams and dreamlike sequences punctuate the saga, and the narrative is replete with references to Tawada's favored animal, the bear (as well as robots, snakes, and Lars Von Trier!). Issues of nationalism, language acquisition, and the relative values of silence versus speaking are explored, along with a strong concern for the damaged earth. Comic passages skewer cultural misapprehensions--if everyone assumes you're a yogi because you're from India, you might as well invent some yoga poses--as well as the dissonant personality exchange between two characters, the extremely unpleasant and authoritative aphasia specialist Dr. Velmer and Nanook, an Eskimo ("'Isn't the correct term Inuit?' 'He doesn't belong to the Inuit tribe'") who is often mistaken for Japanese. As part of a planned trilogy, the work ends with hints of the group's further travels. A summary of the plot and characters fromScattered All Over the Earth is helpfully included before the text, which was translated from Japanese by Mitsutani, a frequent collaborator with Tawada. Trippy, poignant, and thoroughly inventive. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
