Aug 13, 2019 | 288 Pages
Aug 13, 2019 | 549 Minutes
“A masterful work of speculative fiction, The Memory Police is set on a nameless island where every instance of a plant, animal, or object occasionally vanishes without a trace. . . . If that isn’t creepy enough, there’s also an armed force of ‘memory police’ dedicated to erasing all evidence of whatever has vanished. An unforgettable literary thriller full of atmospheric horror.” —Chicago Tribune
“In an era where the concept of truth is negotiable and Alexa might be spying on you, Ogawa’s taut novel of surveillance makes for timely, provocative reading . . . A harrowing parable about the importance of memory and the profound danger of cultural amnesia.” —Esquire
“A searing, vividly imagined novel by a wildly talented writer. . . . Dark and ambitious.” —Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)
“In her newest novel, The Memory Police, one of Japan’s most acclaimed authors explores truth, state surveillance and individual autonomy. Ogawa’s fable echoes the themes of George Orwell’s 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude, but it has a voice and power all its own.” —Time
“A deeply traumatizing novel in the best way possible.” —Vulture
“Ogawa’s anointed translator, Snyder, adroitly captures the quiet control with which Ogawa gently unfurls her ominously surreal and Orwellian narrative. The Memory Police loom, their brutality multiplies, but Ogawa remarkably ensures that what lingers are the human(e) connections—building a communicating device with tubing, sharing pancake bites with a grateful dog, a birthday party. As the visceral disappears, somehow the spirit holds on.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A quiet tale that considers the way small, human connections can disrupt the callous powers of authority. . . . Ogawa employs a quiet, poetic prose to capture the diverse (and often unexpected) emotions of the people left behind rather than of those tormented and imprisoned by brutal authorities. Small acts of rebellion—as modest as a birthday party—do not come out of a commitment to a greater cause but instead originate from her characters’ kinship with one another.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Eerily surreal, Ogawa’s novel takes Orwellian tropes of a surveillance state and makes them markedly her own: Centered around a writer trying to keep her editor from going missing, this dark novel traces disappearances orchestrated by the Memory Police, tasked with keeping the public unaware of any changes to their reality.” —Thrillist
