Hiruko, from the now vanished archipelago ‘somewhere between China and Polynesia’, and her band of friends have searched in vain for someone who speaks her native language. They finally track down Susanoo, a sushi chef from the same nation, but there’s a problem – he has lost the power of speech. As the companions set out to help Susanoo regain his voice, encountering magic radios, personality swaps and climate change fears, their friendship empowers them against despair and sets them to dreaming of a better word. But if Hiruko is ever to hear her mother tongue again, a sceptical aphasia specialist in Copenhagen is her last hope.

Suggested in the Stars carries on the astonishing, intrepid adventures of the band of friends in Scattered All Over the Earth, Yoko Tawada’s rollicking, touching, cheerfully dystopian novel, and delivers exploits that are even more chaotic and poignant.

Translated by Margaret Mitsutani