Yōko Ogawa

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.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

The Memory Police

Gemma McCarthy

"No, that's not really a problem. A heart has no shape, no limits. That's why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why it can hold so much. It's much like your memory, in that sense."

"If you read a novel to the end, then it's over. I would never want to do something as waste- ful as that. I'd much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever."

Laura

I may have managed to finish the story, but I'm still losing myself.

Aren't we together, right now, in spite of everything?

'Men who start by burning books end by burning other men,'

No one knows and no one needs to know. Time is a great healer. It just flows on all of its own accord.

"And what will happen if words disappear?" I whispered to myself, afraid that if I said it too loudly, it might come true.

taylor miles hopkins

…but at some point it vanished. I suppose, over time, that happened to lots of things, even without the disappearances.

I remembered. The pages of the book had opened and fluttered through the air just the way birds had once spread their wings and flown off to distant places. But this memory, too, was soon erased by the flames, leaving behind nothing but the burning night.

“A heart has no shape, no limits. That's why you can put almost any kind of thing in it, why It can hold so much. It's much like your memory, in that sense."

No matter how careful we are, we all leave behind little bits of ourselves as we go about our lives. 

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020, an enthralling Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance from one of Japan's greatest writers. 'Beautiful... Haunting' Sunday Times 'A dreamlike story of dystopia' Jia Tolentino __________ Hat, ribbon, bird rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed. When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn't forget, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next? __________ Finalist for the National Book Award 2019 Longlisted for the Translated Book Award 2020 New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year 'This timeless fable of control and loss feels more timely than ever' Guardian, Books of the Year 'Echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984, but it has a voice and power all its own' Time 'A novel that makes us see differently... A masterpiece' Madeleine Thien

sina (she/her) 

Tascha | alllora

my expectations were so high for this! so i guess it didn’t meet them but an interesting read to say the least

jess

jess larry

Got me feeling all type of emotions, mostly anxiety & left me empty. 

Literally don’t know how to feel about the ending, there’s a hint of sadness, melancholy but a whole lot of nothingness, as if my soul got emptied. 

Definitely recommend !

renni

"Você sabia que, se cortarmos as antenas de um inseto com uma tesoura ele imediatamente fica quietinho? Torna-se hesitante, começa a andar em círculos, para de se alimentar. É a mesma coisa. No momento em que você perde a voz, perde também a capacidade de dar forma a si mesma."

Durante minha leitura eu não sabia se estava gostando ou não do que lia. Eu estava naquela área cinzenta o tempo todo.

Eu estava gostando pela forma lírica da história ser contada. Não tinha exatamente um plot. A vida nesse universo distópico só estava acontecendo e a gente estava assistindo através da personagem.

E as vezes eu não estava gostando justamente por isso. Nada realmente acontecia. Porque estão sumindo com as memórias? Porque e como isso afeta alguns e não outros? Porque nada parecia que realmente tinha um peso?

Depois de terminar creio que entendi por completo e posso concluir que eu gostei da história. 

O ritmo monótono num universo tão caótico é quase um (des)equilíbrio perfeito. O apego e medo de algo não palpável e incontrolável assusta. Não existiu nada tão genuíno quanto o relacionamento dos três personagens. A sua voz nunca realmente some.

Enfim, foi um livro bem interessante (e não que venha ao caso mas gostei mais do que 1984). Gosto quando tudo acontece no nada.

Lost in Tome 

Things are never truly lost, if the memories live in our hearts.

But what happens if you can no longer remember the things that you lost?

Synopsis:
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.
 
Thoughts:
You ever finish a book and for a few minutes, all you can do is sit silently and think about it?

This was one of those books.

Yoko Ogawa weaves a beautiful tale of loss (in more ways than one), death and fear of the human condition. The writing drew me in instantly! Every time I turned the audiobook on, I felt like I entered a dream state.

I found all the characters to be relatable at one point or another. Who hasn’t felt the pain of losing a loved one? Or the anxiety felt from the idea that you could leave this world without anyone ever remembering you were here.

I have been broken by this book. While reading, I felt myself diving into the characters thoughts and feeling. I felt little pieces of me slip away as each task became harder or another item disappeared. By the last sentence I was left feeling empty…distant…lost.
 
Absolutely amazing experience and I know this is a novel that will never be forgotten.

This had such an interesting and unique premise, but the implementation was simply weird. It kinda matches the scheme of the book, but I think especially the ending would’ve been much more meaningful, If I had more reasons to sympathize with the characters. They all seemed pretty bland and distant.

Tabea

altlovesbooks

Another example of a book's premise being far more interesting than the book itself. You live on an island where you wake up one day and something from your life has just vanished. The first incident in the book involves birds, so everyone woke up and suddenly the concept of "bird" holds no meaning. You don't remember what a bird was, you don't know what a bird is, all knowledge of "bird" is removed by the Memory Police. Holding onto past concepts like birds, flowers, calendars, is forbidden, and it's considered taboo to reminisce or talk about items that have been "disappeared". As the book progresses, the disappeared items take the form of increasingly important and valuable things, and while disoriented and discomfited, the people are expected and encouraged to take it in stride and move on.

Certain people are immune to this, where they retain all memories and knowledge of things that have been disappeared, and if discovered by the Memory Police, these people are taken away and never seen again. Our main character is not one of these people, but does hide away her editor as he is one of these people. Romance blooms as romance does in books like these, and the editors tries his best to make the main character remember things that had been lost and realize how awful things truly are. 

It's a very dystopian novel, and one without any real satisfying answers or conclusion. We never find out who or what the Memory Police act on behalf of, or why these things are being removed. I gather the novel is about how complacency is a creeping, insidious beast (the things disappeared start out innocuous and easily missed and slowly ramp up in importance and meaning as the story progresses), and that people should never just accept things as they are, but honestly the book came off boring and incomplete. This would've had more meaning if we had more reason to care about the people and their fate.

Hat, ribbon, bird, rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed. When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn't forget, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next? The Memory Police is a beautiful, haunting and provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, from one of Japan's greatest writers. For readers of The Handmaid's Tale, Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

A Novel

3.5 stars I think. Very intriguing plot and overall a great book. It's just that I quite honestly don't know what to make of the book after finishing it. I think this was the author's intention and even if not, I appreciate the fact that it happened so, ultimately, I think my confusion and inability to describe my feelings for this book is a positive thing. It's a 'you have to read it and see for yourself' kind of situation.

Karis Ryu

The poetic, unsettling horror of forgetting.

Klára Kováčiková 

Maddy Adams

Felt like there were a lot of gaps in the story. It wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t really feel like we ever got a full picture of what was going on / a background of each of the important characters. Just really a lot missing.

Midori Kobayashi

4/5stars

Men who start by burning books end by burning other men


Love child of George Orwell plot progressions and Haruki Murakami's writing style- this is closest I can come to describing this book. And I mean this in the best way possible. It brings to table the classic Orwellian dystopia vibes alongwith Murakami's abstract and bizarreness, combining them both to a fine novel most of which tho sadly was lost in translation. Or so I believe. The book had all the 'vibes' a book of such kind should have but the words were at times unable to convey the feelings 100% and that I feel is because of the translation. 



They may be nothing more than scraps of paper, but they capture something profound. Light and wind and air, the tenderness or joy of the photographer, the bashfulness or pleasure of the subject. You have to guard these things forever in your heart. That’s why photographs are taken in the first place.



Definitely a good start towards my efforts to read more of Japanese literature. Although I do hope others do not suffer similar fates at the hands of translation and language barriers, that would be quite a disappointment. Overall tho, this was a solid plot almost amore than 4stars. 



If you read a novel to the end, then it’s over. I would never want to do something as wasteful as that. I’d much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever.

Shona Tiger

Not sure still if it will keep the four stars overtime but...

It was an enjoyable book. I am the type of person who loves dystopian novels, they excite me and make me wonder, I love when they allow me to discover what their world is like, their rules, the prohibitions, the scary-close-to-home totalitarian governments.

This book didn't do much of that, in fact I disagree a lot with the people comparing this to Orwell or Bradbury just because there is the Memory Police and they burn books.

Nevertheless, put that aside, not thinking of this as a dystopian or speculative fiction, this book was wonderful. A little heartbreaking, a little dark, a little fantastic and cryptic, with a special way of talking bout loss trauma and who are we when we forget, who are we in isolation, who are we if not our memories.

It was wonderful, also there was a dog and that made it a little better, haven't read many books with dogs in them.

Isabela Ospina

Not sure still if it will keep the four stars overtime but...

It was an enjoyable book. I am the type of person who loves dystopian novels, they excite me and make me wonder, I love when they allow me to discover what their world is like, their rules, the prohibitions, the scary-close-to-home totalitarian governments.

This book didn't do much of that, in fact I disagree a lot with the people comparing this to Orwell or Bradbury just because there is the Memory Police and they burn books.

Nevertheless, put that aside, not thinking of this as a dystopian or speculative fiction, this book was wonderful. A little heartbreaking, a little dark, a little fantastic and cryptic, with a special way of talking bout loss trauma and who are we when we forget, who are we in isolation, who are we if not our memories.

It was wonderful, also there was a dog and that made it a little better, haven't read many books with dogs in them.

kesha

this book is a bit of a hard sell because if you were to ask me what exactly i liked about it, i wouldn't be able to point it out to you. the plot and premise are contextual at best, never bothering with structural development or internal details, the characters are real and will make you feel occasionally but they remain unremarkable, the prose has its moments but it's not exceptional enough to compensate for a assured good time. in fact i don't think i even love this book. but the play of themes, the atmosphere, the dread and the joy and the loss and the humanity, the layered ascension to the point that brings the question of self (who even are you if not the things you own or the things you remember, if not your body or your mind? are you the fighting voice in your head? is that all you can cling to?). 

it was a slow read that taught me to be more aware and grateful of the life i lead, and i suppose it was something i needed right now? a solid 3.5. and honestly i picked it up for the name and the cover design, and i'm glad the intrigue held out.

also i think the sci-fi/dystopian tag work against it because the genre expects a far more fleshed out world building when that's not the case here at all. i guess you could call it sort of slice of life, except it's not fit enough to be called a life at all.

A bit boring, but can see why the literature girlies froth it

Dylan Williams

if anything, this book made me not want to disappear. :'(

Amanda

Hard to rate. It's well written, but I hated it. Very unpleasant, little enjoyment. If you're a fan of 1984 you might enjoy this. Same sense of bleak hopelessness.

Izza

3.75 stars | I’m not sure how to rate this. The writing was beautiful and smart? but the ending was pretty anticlimactic and I have so many questions.

As a genuine compliment, this was a horror story. 

Whitley

This book was so incredibly well written and I got lost in the prose so easily. ❤️ It is very dark - definitely à la Bradbury or Orwell, so if you like those books this one is for you! But it was such an interesting read and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Liv Wukasch

Hat, ribbon, bird, rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed.

When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn’t forget, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next?

The Memory Police is a beautiful, haunting and provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, from one of Japan’s greatest writers.

Elena Ackermann Ferrari

'The Memory Police' was at its most beautiful when it was simple and subtle. 
As soon as it started trying to do more, it lost me bit by bit. 
The added romance didn't have to be, but it was mostly pushed to the background, meaning it wasn't as annoying. 

The conclusion sounds good in theory, though I did not believe it was handled all too well.

I absolutely love this! The characters, the plot, all was really good and the end made me almost cry. I really recommend this :)

matyyy

Eugenia G

One of my favorite parts about this book is the uncertain, eerie tone it sets and its lack of a regularly paced flow (something I think common to a lot of Japanese literature, particularly fiction, where the focus is more on observing a condition or social structure rather than pushing a plot), which both replicated what I imagined to be the unending sensation in the hearts of everybody on the island. Proof that you don't need a ton of flowery language or dense descriptions to paint a scene.

n 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 no 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 the floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her wiring as the last way of preserving the past.

The Memory Police

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