Scattered All Over the Earth

RYAN RUBY, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"... mordantly funny ... More than simply international, her writing is translingual; she leaves the borders between languages open and allows them to cross-pollinate. To translate her into English is to excavate linguistic strata: Panska reads like a Japonic parody of Nordic syntax translated into a West Germanic language ... Each character in Tawada's 'band of zigzag travelers' is given chapters to narrate in the first person. These limited perspectives give rise to a comedy of intercultural misunderstandings that both move the plot forward and provide targets for Tawada's sharp satire ... Judging by the recent migrant crises that informed Tawada's novel, it is a long-overdue lesson. By the time we are reading the trilogy's final volume, the climate-fiction scenario Tawada drapes in the trappings of picaresque comedy will no longer seem speculative."