Archipelago of the Sun

"Raised in Japan, now based in Berlin, Yoko Tawada reaches readers in English only via translation. Still, there’s no mistaking the shimmering strangeness of her voice. That’s partly a testament to translator Margaret Mitsutani, whose previous work with Tawada has earned one National Book Award and a spot on the shortlist for Scattered All Over the Earth. The latter book opened a trilogy that concludes with Archipelago. Consider this a recommendation for the whole series, frankly. Its three slim books craft a winningly genial kind of dystopia, bleak and earnest in equal measure, in which an intrepid band of misfits carry out their grail quest with all the logic of Calvinball, in which the only rule that really matters is the one you’re about to make up next."