The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa
![](https://booksbdonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Picsart_24-07-13_18-11-21-658-700x390.jpg)
This is a translated work from Japanese, and the genre borders on dystopian and magical realism.
This story takes place on an unknown island where things have been disappearing over the years. But when a thing disappears, the memories of those things disappear too. Such as when perfume disappeared in this world, the characters couldn’t remember what those were used for, and even the perfume started smelling like just water to them because of the loss of memory.
But there are few people who never lose any memory after the disappearances.
The oppressive force in this world is known as the memory police. They hunt down people who never lose memory, and those people disappear into thin air. People don’t know whether they are murdered or taken as lab subjects.
In this novel, the main character is an author, and her editor is someone who does not lose memories, and the memory police are looking for him. She decides to hide the editor in her house and protect him from the memory police because, in her childhood, her mother was taken from her by the memory police.
This book is about loss, grief, and trauma. The writing is poetic, beautiful, and simple. The existentialism theme of the story grabs the reader from the very first page. This is a must-read book for everyone.
-Ariana