50 pages • 1 hour read
Yoko Tawada, Transl. Margaret MitsutaniA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
As a work of speculative fiction, Scattered All Over the Earth imagines a future formed from the implications of the present. It explores a world that continues to struggle with the forces of climate change, and particularly, with the cultural change brought about by climate-driven migration. Technology and migration shrink the world and bring cultures closer together, making Europe a place of cultural ferment in which new and hybrid traditions are constantly being born. At the same time, cultures do not always meet on an equal footing, and the pressure to assimilate can cause traditions, identities, and even languages to disappear. The most potent symbol of this fear of erasure is the “land of sushi.” Though numerous cues make clear that this vanished nation is Japan, neither Japan nor the Japanese language is ever mentioned by name in the book—as if the nation has disappeared so completely that even its name has been erased from existence. Hiruko spends her life hoping to find someone else who comes from this land so that she can speak her native language before it, too, disappears.
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Common Reads: Freshman Year Reading
View Collection
Friendship
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Japanese Literature
View Collection
National Book Awards Winners & Finalists
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection