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The Memory Police

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The Memory Police

By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020, an enthralling Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance from one of Japan's greatest writers.

Hat, ribbon, bird rose.

To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed.

When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn't forget, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next?

Finalist for the National Book Award 2019

Longlisted for the Translated Book Award 2020

New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year

©2019 Yoko Ogawa (P)2023 Penguin Audio Dystopian Literary Fiction Political Psychological

Critic Reviews

'The Memory Police is a masterpiece: a deep pool that can be experienced as fable or allegory, warning and illumination. It is a novel that makes us see differently, opening up its ideas in inconspicuous ways, knowing that all moments of understanding and grace are fleeting. It is political and human, it makes no promises. It is a rare work of patient and courageous vision.' (Madeleine Thien)

'This timeless fable of control and loss feels more timely than ever.' Guardian, Books of the Year

'Echoes the themes of George Orwell's 1984, but it has a voice and power all its own.' Time

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A slow burn with an ambiguous ending

Interesting to listen to a novel painstakingly translated from Japanese into English.
Personally I found the ending unsatisfying with key questions left unanswered.

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