Archipelago of the Sun

Yoko Tawada

Book cover for Archipelago of the Sun
Book cover for Archipelago of the Sun

Archipelago of the Sun

Archipelago of the Sun

Yoko Tawada

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Description

The Archipelago of the Sun finds Hiruko still searching for her lost country, traveling around the Baltic on a mail boat. With her are Knut, a Danish linguist; Akash, an Indian in the process of moving to the opposite sex; Nanook, a Greenlander who once worked as a sushi chef; Nora, the German woman who loves Nanook but is equally concerned with social justice and the environment; and Susanoo, a former sushi chef who believes he is responsible for the entire group. But weren't they originally supposed to sail to Cape Town, and then on to India? Puzzled by this sudden change in route, which no one seems to remember anything about, they encounter long dead writers (Witold Gombrowicz, Hella Wuolijoki) on board, plus a cast of characters from literature, art, and myth. As the very existence of Hiruko and Susanoo's homeland is called into question, Susanoo meets the mythical princess he will marry, and Hiruko tells the others that she herself will be a house in which everyone can live. Though the trilogy comes to its end, their journey seems likely to continue.

Critical Reviews

Tawada is immune to the seduction of ideal worlds. Even when speculative, her fiction still manages to operate in the world that we actually inhabit: one characterized by slippages, ambiguity, and a history of territorial entanglements that began long before twentieth-century globalism--entanglements that, in fact, go back so far that they might be one of the few things coterminous with being human.-- "The Baffler"

Tawada's playful and deeply inventive new novel ... succeeds brilliantly, sketching a grim global dilemma with the sort of wit and humanism that Italo Calvino, in a discussion of lightness in literature, described as 'weightless gravity.'--Julian Lucas "The New Yorker"

Even one's mother tongue is a translation.--Yoko Tawada

Proof that thoughtful novels of ideas can be fun as well as provocative.-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred)"

Tawada again proffers linguistic illuminations.--Terry Hong "Booklist"

Publishing Information

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Pub date: 2025-09-02
Length: 256 pages

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