Written by Yōko Ogawa with Stephen Snyder (Translator)
Published by Vintage, August 2019 (originally published in 1994 in Japan)
288 pages
Completed July 27, 2024
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.
This was an interesting read. It’s a bit weird but I enjoyed the characters and the plot for what it was. We never learn why things are disappearing and who is in control of the island. It’s not really even clear if the Memory Police know everything either or are just going along with what’s happening because they think they’re supposed to. Which could also be a metaphor for people “just following orders” and the dangers of that. The ending is really dark but also with the potential of change depending on what happens next? We’ll never know for sure but the ideas are there.
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