21 must-read fiction books like Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

Cover of Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

Scattered All Over the Earth

By: Yōko Tawada

3.27

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now re…

"People are always saying the humanities are dead so it's strange how many conferences there are."

-Yōko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth

"People are always saying the humanities are dead so it's strange how many conferences there are."

-Yōko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth

If you liked the fiction plot in Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada , here is a list of 21 books like this:

Cover of All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

1. All the Lovers in the Night

By: Mieko Kawakami

3.72

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city wher… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's All the Lovers in the Night book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • japan
"It only took me a couple of hours to realise that she was a woman of talents beyond anything I could imagine - even though I was a stranger to such talents myself."

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"The light at night is special because the overwhelming light of day has left us, and the remaining half draws on everything it has to keep the world around us bright."

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"When I felt sleepy I slept, and when I opened my eyes I got up, letting hunger dictate when to head to the fridge or kitchen cabinet to eat some of the things that I'd stocked up on. When supplies ra…"

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"When I felt sleepy I slept, and when I opened my eyes I got up, letting hunger dictate when to head to the fridge or kitchen cabinet to eat some of the things that I'd stocked up on. When supplies ra…"

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

Cover of Bliss Montage by Ling  Ma

2. Bliss Montage

By: Ling Ma

3.91

Format: 228 pages, Hardcover

A new creation by the author of Severance, the stories in Bliss Montage crash through our carefully… read more

Similar categories in Ling Ma's Bliss Montage book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"To live is to exist within time. To remember is to negate time."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It doesn't take much to come into your own; all it takes is someone's gaze."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"Maybe you don't know that you're wounded until you receive the salve. The salve that makes everything come back."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It was a time when the future could have been anything, been anywhere. It was so open that it could actually crush her."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

Cover of The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn

3. The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

By: Olga Ravn

3.67

Format: 136 pages, Paperback

A workplace novel of the 22nd century The near-distant future. Millions of kilometres from Earth… read more

Similar categories in Olga Ravn's The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • novels
  • speculative fiction
"This is not a human, but a coworker."

-Olga Ravn, The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

"Cada ação encerra em si um elemento de caos."

-Olga Ravn, The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

"Tudo precisa atravessar enormes distâncias para se tornar o que é."

-Olga Ravn, The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

"Eu também tenho em mim palavras apagadas que deveria ter dito e já não sei mais o que significam."

-Olga Ravn, The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

Cover of The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada

4. The Hole

By: Hiroko Oyamada

3.49

Format: 92 pages, Paperback

Asa’s husband is transferring jobs, and his new office is located near his family’s home in the cou… read more

Similar categories in Hiroko Oyamada's The Hole book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • contemporary
  • japanese literature
  • japan
  • fiction
  • novels
"I moved out here with my husband."

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Hole

"It's just, families are strange things, aren't they? You have this couple: one man, one woman. A male and a female, if you will. They mate, and why? To leave children behind. And what are the childre…"

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Hole

"Abrí la ventana y oí a las cigarras cantar. No sé si era porque estaba en el campo y había muchos árboles o por la influencia del clima de ese año, pero nunca las había oído con tanta intensidad. Era…"

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Hole

Cover of The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin

5. The Pachinko Parlour

By: Elisa Shua Dusapin

3.61

Format: 171 pages, Paperback

The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and … read more

Similar categories in Elisa Shua Dusapin's The Pachinko Parlour book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • japan
"They made it illegal to speak Korean. You could be sentenced to death for speaking it. And do you know what your grandmother’s mother did to avoid being subjected to speaking Japanese at school? She …"

-Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Pachinko Parlour

"When Korea was divided, we were still nationals of a unified Korea. It was called Choson. At separation, the Japanese government gave us permission to keep our Korean identity, but we had to choose b…"

-Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Pachinko Parlour

Cover of Y/N by Esther Yi

6. Y/N

By: Esther Yi

2.95

Format: 204 pages, Kindle Edition

Y/Na novel about a Korean American woman living in Berlin whose obsession with a K-pop idol sends h… read more

Similar categories in Esther Yi's Y/N book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
"You are not your dryness," the Boys said in small copy on the box, "You are not your sebum." They wanted to make the world a better place, and that began with my enlarged pores."

-Esther Yi, Y/N

"I knew how all of this felt, better than if I had felt it myself. The boy was my ambassador, sent to a foreign land with which my own land was in delicate relations. I'd never visited this country my…"

-Esther Yi, Y/N

"As a human being who cannot live without love, I know full well that I have exhausted my options on this disappointing planet. The question is no longer ‘Who are the people who will accept my unusual…"

-Esther Yi, Y/N

"Inside your mother, you were perfectly round, complete unto yourself. You wanted for nothing. But you were born, and the nightmare began. Your body was pulled in all directions. Your arms, legs, neck…"

-Esther Yi, Y/N

Cover of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1) by Satoshi Yagisawa

7. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)

By: Satoshi Yagisawa

3.65

Format: 150 pages, Paperback

The moving international sensation about new beginnings, human connection, and the joy of reading. … read more

Similar categories in Satoshi Yagisawa's Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1) book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • japan
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"It hurts to realize that it might be too late now for anything but regret."

-Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)

"And here I am spending a sleepless night in a strange place. We might not be far from home, but I feel lonely."

-Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)

"In my dream, I was an android maid living in a city in the not-so- distant future. In that neighbourhood, all the buildings were made of used books."

-Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)

"No es cuestión de ser expertos o novatos. Si lo plantea así, ni siquiera yo lo soy tanto. Lo importante es sentir emociones al toparse con un libro."

-Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)

Cover of Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

8. Life Ceremony

By: Sayaka Murata

3.75

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stori… read more

Similar categories in Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • japan
"Nowadays, your partner is not necessarily a sex object - this is a wonderful advancement."

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"I'm seeking an amicable daily routine with someone I get along well with, like brother and sister, without being a slave to sex"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"Walking like this, feeling like a feral human, even machines and buildings were warm to the touch, and some emitted sounds and vibrations. Their presence was similar to the sounds emitted by life-for…"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"If they tried it, the memories of the wild rooted in their flesh would come back to them, and they would discover that eating the city like this would connect the earth between the gaps in the concre…"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

Cover of Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

9. Breasts and Eggs

By: Mieko Kawakami

3.86

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting e… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • japan
"Then there are the real bastards, like my ex,"

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"Mi sentivo come un essere privato della carne e della pelle e ridotto a sole ossa. Un carapace enorme completamente cavo."

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"We could worry about tomorrow when it came. What mattered most right now is how we would spend the remainder of today, even if it was half over."

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"I could see people all around me, but I almost felt like nobody could see me. I heard a train go by, rumbling down the tracks, drawing a thick line between the world and my experience. I was getting …"

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

Cover of This is Amiko, Do You Copy? by Natsuko Imamura

10. This is Amiko, Do You Copy?

By: Natsuko Imamura

3.63

Format: 122 pages, Paperback

Other people don’t seem to understand Amiko. Whether eating curry rice with her hands at school or … read more

Similar categories in Natsuko Imamura's This is Amiko, Do You Copy? book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • japan
"Every time she cried, "I love you!" the words shattered her heart without mercy."

-Natsuko Imamura, This is Amiko, Do You Copy?

Cover of Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada

11. Weasels in the Attic

By: Hiroko Oyamada

3.43

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

From the acclaimed author of The Hole and The Factory, a thrilling and mysterious work that explore… read more

Similar categories in Hiroko Oyamada's Weasels in the Attic book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • japan
"We meet at school, or work, or maybe a store. Wherever it is, there's just a random group of individuals, right? Within that group, you find your mate. If you were in a different group, you' d end up…"

-Hiroko Oyamada, Weasels in the Attic

Cover of Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki

12. Terminal Boredom: Stories

By: Izumi Suzuki

3.59

Format: 218 pages, Paperback

Seven punky and pitch-black stories offer English-language readers an overdue introduction to Izumi… read more

Similar categories in Izumi Suzuki's Terminal Boredom: Stories book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • asia
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • japanese literature
  • science fiction
  • speculative fiction
  • japan
"INSUFFICIENT VEGETABLE OIL,’ quoth the replicator."

-Izumi Suzuki, Terminal Boredom: Stories

"And having four kids? Giving birth to them naturally? What is she, an animal?"

-Izumi Suzuki, Terminal Boredom: Stories

"When we first met, Reiko still had something of a wrecked beauty. Now, not even those ruins remained."

-Izumi Suzuki, Terminal Boredom: Stories

"I’m a sucker for trends. I don’t have much in the way of agency. I always want to try whatever’s popular."

-Izumi Suzuki, Terminal Boredom: Stories

Cover of Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

13. Diary of a Void

By: Emi Yagi

3.51

Format: 213 pages, Hardcover

A prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about a woman in Japan who avoids harassment at … read more

Similar categories in Emi Yagi's Diary of a Void book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • japan
"Having a baby isn't easy. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's been two thousand years, and it's the same old story, right?"

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"I'm always so alone. I guess I should be used to it by now. That's the way it is from the moment we come into this world, but I'm still not used to it - how alone we all are."

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"Maybe that's making a family is all about: creating an environment in which people make space for one another - maybe without even trying, just naturally, to make sure that nobody's forgotten."

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"Until they arrived, while everyone else was transitioning to winter, putting on coats and sweaters, I was going to stick with my summer dress and my usual work blazer. Dressed in the dazzling flowers…"

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

Cover of Butter by Asako Yuzuki

14. Butter

By: Asako Yuzuki

3.60

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist inten… read more

Similar categories in Asako Yuzuki's Butter book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • japan
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Dessert was home-made candied chestnuts, chiffon cake baked with amazake and rice flour, and cups of gingery chai. Biting into the cake, Rika discovered that it was perfectly fluffy, with a pleasing …"

-Asako Yuzuki, Butter

"Soon after, Rika heard the sizzle of butter melting in a hot frying pan. It smelt to her like life itself. Maybe because it was animal fat, there was rough, raw depth and fragrance to its smell, whic…"

-Asako Yuzuki, Butter

"Milk was originally blood. In that case, was the butter in the Babaji story actually a metaphor for all the carnage that took place under the cover of the jungle? What seemed pure, white and creamy h…"

-Asako Yuzuki, Butter

"The whipped butter had already started melting across the waffles' latticed brown surface, creating a golden trickling waterfall that pooled in their hollows. Rika bit into the dough, savoring how ju…"

-Asako Yuzuki, Butter

Cover of The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

15. The Premonition

By: Banana Yoshimoto

3.43

Format: 133 pages, Hardcover

The internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and he… read more

Similar categories in Banana Yoshimoto's The Premonition book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • japan
"I'd never known a love before that could blot out the world around like this."

-Banana Yoshimoto, The Premonition

"Later, for the first time in a very long time, I heard my aunt play the piano. Its tone was soft, and just like I remembered it. At the kitchen window one overcast afternoon, I watched its beautiful …"

-Banana Yoshimoto, The Premonition

Cover of Your Utopia by Bora Chung

16. Your Utopia

By: Bora Chung

3.65

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from the … read more

Similar categories in Bora Chung's Your Utopia book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • asia
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • speculative fiction
Cover of Ghost Music by An Yu

17. Ghost Music

By: An Yu

3.51

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative note… read more

Similar categories in An Yu's Ghost Music book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"What brought me a touch of comfort was knowing not that my husband was there, asleep on the other side of the wall, but that there was a stranger, across the street, still awake and listening to the …"

-An Yu, Ghost Music

Cover of The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

18. The Factory

By: Hiroko Oyamada

3.34

Format: 116 pages, Paperback

The English-language debut of Hiroko Oyamada—one of the most powerfully strange young voices in Jap… read more

Similar categories in Hiroko Oyamada's The Factory book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • japan
"As I opened the basement-level door, I thought I could smell birds."

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Factory

"I didn’t have to answer any weird questions about what I was reading, or hear anyone’s thoughts about which 7-Eleven bento they liked best."

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Factory

"All I could see was a meaningless arrangement of squiggles and dots, symbols and patterns, running on endlessly. Words are such unstable things."

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Factory

"Life has nothing to do with work and work has no real bearing on life. I used to think they were connected, but now I can see there’s just no way."

-Hiroko Oyamada, The Factory

Cover of Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai

19. Mild Vertigo

By: Mieko Kanai

3.55

Format: 176 pages, Paperback

Housewife Natsumi leads a small, unremarkable life in a modern Tokyo apartment with her husband and… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kanai's Mild Vertigo book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • japan
Cover of Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

20. Scattered All Over the Earth

By: Yōko Tawada

3.27

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now re… read more

Similar categories in Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • science fiction
  • japanese literature
  • novels
  • speculative fiction
  • japan
"People are always saying the humanities are dead so it's strange how many conferences there are."

-Yōko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth

Cover of The Third Love by Hiromi Kawakami

21. The Third Love

By: Hiromi Kawakami

3.36

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has … read more

Similar categories in Hiromi Kawakami's The Third Love book and Yōko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • japan
  • fiction
  • contemporary

18 Top contemporary books like Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

Transform Your Habits

All the Lovers in the Night

Mieko Kawakami

3.72

Transform Your Habits

Bliss Montage

Ling Ma

3.91

Transform Your Habits

The Hole

Hiroko Oyamada

3.49

Transform Your Habits

The Pachinko Parlour

Elisa Shua Dusapin

3.61

View all the books

5 best-selling japan books like Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Transform Your Habits

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #2)

Satoshi Yagisawa

3.87

Transform Your Habits

The Kamogawa Food Detectives (Kamogawa Food Detectives, #1)

Hisashi Kashiwai

3.70

Transform Your Habits

Butter

Asako Yuzuki

3.60

Transform Your Habits

Mongrel

Hanako Footman

4.38

View all the books

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