The Memory Police

by Yoko Ogawa

This book is currently on the shortlist for the Booker International Prize.  It was actually published 20 years ago but has only been translated recently.  It is an amazing book, almost prophetic considering our current times.

The book is about a young woman, and author, who lives on an island where things start to disappear.  They can be common everyday things like flowers, fruit, etc.  When things disappear people forget about them and forget the word.  One day the river is full of rose petals as all roses disappear.  If things don't disappear on their own, the people of the island destroy them, so when books are "disappeared" the people gather for book burnings.

As a little girl the girl's mother, a sculptor, would show her things she had stored in drawers in her workshop and tell the little girl about these "disappeared" items.  Her mother is taken away at some point.  Other people are also taken away by the Memory Police.  Her parents sculptures and her father's work as an avian expert are removed from the house by the Memory Police.

One day some people who are trying to hide from the Memory Police come to visit the girl to give her some of her mother's sculptures.   The girl later discovers that her mother has been hiding disappeared objects inside these sculptures.

The young girl is friends with an old man who lives on an abandoned ferry boat, ferries no longer run and people no longer have a memory of them.  The young woman's publisher seems to be one of the rare people who do not forget about things when they are "disappeared".  She knows he is in danger so convinces him to leave his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, and come and live in a secret room she has built into her house.  He is trapped in this tiny room, she feeds him and provides water etc.  She also arranges for him to exchange messages with his wife.

Eventually people's body parts, e.g. their leg, are disappeared.  People are going to cut off their legs but realize that would be deadly so instead they limp along on sticks etc as if their leg didn't exist.
Ultimately all the bodies disappear.  The only person we know of who continues to exist whole is the publisher hidden in the woman's house.

This was a very dark story, but with a powerful message for today.  How much are we willingly ignoring?? How far will we let the dark forces go?  Will we surrender ourselves completely.

This was a book I will think about for a long time.  It had a few things that were unexplained, who is doing the controlling?  Why don't the memory police forget things?  Or do they?