On an isolated island, things are disappearing and people forget them and move on. One day, birds disappear. Another day, it is the turn of fragrance or people’s legs to disappear.

The memory police works as an organisation that makes sure that things are burnt or thrown into the river for people to forget them quickly. They use all means necessary to enforce their rules. And this means causing terror by invading houses, kidnapping people who do not forget and killing them.

A young novelist finds herself hiding her editor who does not forget things. 

The book is reminiscing of George Orwell’s 1984 and any fictional and non-fictional book that dwells into the stories of people caught up in the time of war, purge and genocide.

The main focus of the book revolves around memory and how our memory gives us humanity, how with it, we develop and create things. Memories bring us back to the most impactful moments of our lives and shape our personality, mindset and behaviour. It sets the angle from which we observe the world. And so when objects, living beings, parts of the body or skills disappear what becomes of us? Are we still human? Yoka Ogawa explores this question. 

Her writing is exceptional. The book is mostly written in prose. It is quite philosophical in some aspects. There is no plot because I believe that the author wanted to give us a sense of longing for something who had and no longer have but also for something we forgot and struggle to remember.

When books must disappear, people have no choice but to burn them. Books are  prints of the past, present and ultimately change the future. They solidify, question and expand knowledge. There is a quote that stayed with me “ men who start by burning books end by burning other men”

What fascinated me was the way Yoko Ogawa  developed the concept of acceptance. The acceptance of the death of something in a day. How this acceptance differs from one person to another.

 For the character-driven book enthusiasts, I recommend this book.