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The Memory Police cover

The Memory Police

Yoko Ogawa

2019 · Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · 288 pages · English

About this book

Finalist for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor . On an unnamed island, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses. . . . Most of the inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few able to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotte…

Who this is for

AI · Sample

Quiet, observational, and lightly philosophical — the prose is the point. Best for readers who already enjoy literary fiction and aren't reading for plot. Frustrates anyone expecting clear stakes.

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A prose-driven with strong ideas, melancholic and immersive read.

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