The Memory Police
June 15, 2020 6:54 AM - by Ogawa, Yoko - Subscribe

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor ... A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss. Author: Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder

From Goodreads: On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
posted by jazon (1 comment total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I loved this. It brought to mind far more authors than Orwell, for me at least -- The Trial, Fahrenheit 451, and especially Ionesco's Rhinoceros all came to mind as I was reading it.
posted by kyrademon at 7:35 AM on September 18, 2022


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