Tawada Y?ko’s Border-Crossing Dystopian Trilogy
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Loading... - Chiaki Makino
- 24 Jan 2023
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The Japanese writer Tawada Y?ko’s latest outing to make it into English translation, as Scattered All Over the Earth, was nominated for the US National Book Award for Translated Literature, which she previously won in 2018. A look at the latest work from one of Japan’s most notable active writers.
Tawada’s Latest Global Splash
Chiky? ni chiribamerarete, Tawada Y?ko’s latest novel to be translated into English (by Margaret Mitsutani, as Scattered All Over the Earth), is the first installment of a trilogy whose narrative transcends barriers of ethnicity, nationality, and language. There are six main characters, who take turns narrating chapters from his or her own perspective (although divisions of gender are not especially important in the story either), describing their own lives and backgrounds. Over the course of the novel, they are led toward a certain goal, growing to form an impromptu community thrown together by chance and sharing the same destiny.
Knut is a graduate student of linguistics at a university in Copenhagen. One day he comes across a television panel featuring people who grew up in countries that no longer exist. He becomes fascinated by a young Japanese woman called Hiruko, who appears on the program speaking an unfamiliar language that turns out to be a homemade form of “Pan-Scandinavian.”
Hiruko is originally from Niigata but her homeland has disappeared while she has been studying abroad. Since then, she has moved from place to place as a migrant across Scandinavia. Over the course of her travels she has cobbled together her own hybrid language. It is not the national language of any single country, but can be understood by all Scandinavians.
An Odyssey in Search of Compatriots
Hiruko and Knut set off together to look for other survivors from Hiruko’s vanished homeland who might speak the same mother tongue. The first place they visit is an “Umami Festival” being held in the German city of Trier. Slated to speak at the festival is Nanook, a Japanese chef conducting research on umami flavors.
They visit Trier to meet Nanook, and make friends with Akash, an Indian, and Nora, a German. Akash is a transgender person who dresses in red saris. Nora works in a museum and has a keen concern in environmental issues. She is also Nanook’s former girlfriend. Read More…
