--- product_id: 119472968 title: "The Memory Police: A Novel" price: "FREE" currency: EUR in_stock: false reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.nl/products/119472968-the-memory-police-a-novel store_origin: NL region: Netherlands --- # The Memory Police: A Novel **Price:** FREE **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Memory Police: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** FREE with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nl](https://www.desertcart.nl/products/119472968-the-memory-police-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description 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 forgotten. When a young writer discovers that her editor is in danger, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards, and together they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past. Powerful and provocative, The Memory Police is a stunning novel about the trauma of loss. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * TIME * CHICAGO TRIBUNE * T HE GUARDIAN * ESQUIRE * THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS * FINANCIAL TIMES * LIBRARY JOURNAL * THE A.V. CLUB * KIRKUS REVIEWS * LITERARY HUB American Book Award winner Review: A Beautiful, Poignant, Brilliant, Strange, Captivating, and Terrifying Tale - Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police” blends dystopian fiction, science fiction, and magical realism into a mesmerizing exploration of memory and identity. This beautifully written tale is simultaneously poignant, brilliant, strange, captivating, and terrifying. The novel takes place on an unnamed island where objects periodically “disappear”—not just from people’s memories, but physically as well. The Memory Police systematically remove items, even books, from society, ensuring these items cannot trigger remembrance. What makes this premise so chilling is the totalitarian enforcement of forgetting—a true Orwellian tale of government control and authoritarian rule. As these disappearances accumulate, Ogawa shows how every aspect of our lives, down to the smallest objects, anchors our sense of reality and personal history. Something vanishes every day, erasing little pieces of people’s lives. Most island inhabitants forget these items immediately, going about their lives as if nothing has changed. But some remember—and these individuals live in constant danger, hunted by the Memory Police who enforce the disappearances. The novel had me asking profound questions: What happens to identity when both physical objects and memories are stolen? What do people become under such oppressive control? And what happens to those captured by the Memory Police, never to return? These mysteries kept me intrigued and engaged throughout. Under constant government surveillance, island residents attempt to maintain normalcy in an increasingly abnormal world. The protagonist’s struggle, alongside those who still remember, creates a tension that builds toward an ending that continued to haunt me long after finishing the last page. I devoured “The Memory Police” in nearly one sitting, captivated by its eerie atmosphere and philosophical depth. The novel’s peculiar beauty lies in how it lingers in the mind, raising questions about memory, authoritarianism, and what remains when our connections to the physical world are forcibly severed. Any book that keeps me questioning and reflecting long after the story ends is, in my estimation, truly exceptional. Review: A cozy book that reminds you to not forget - Speculative science fiction that's light on science. Just like I like them. This is very reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguori's take on science fiction (Never Let Me Go and Clara and the Sun), where the story is more about people and exploring concepts related to the human condition than it is about a deep dive into technology. It's not a cautionary tale in the traditional sense with sci-fi. But it is a cautionary tale. We follow a very small cast of character (only one of them named) through their day-to-day lives on a remote island that is plagued by objects "disappearing." They don't visually disappear. They disappear from comprehension. This concept reinforces the themes of the novel, which I'll let you discover on your own, but it's one that I appreciated. This story doesn't hit you over the head with plot. The plot is pretty thin, in fact. But I was fine with that because the setting and the characters are ones I wanted to spend time with. Some people might find this boring for the above reason. It's not going to take you by the hand and pull you through an elaborate plot with twists and turns. In fact, most of the plot beats don't end up the way you expect, which is a good thing in my opinion. While I did grasp some of the things Ogawa was exploring, some of them didn't seem to add up in my mind. That doesn't mean they aren't there. Since this book was written in Japanese and translated into English, we know that much of what she explores is rooted in Eastern culture. Maybe she was pulling from Eastern concepts, or maybe she wasn't. Despite its minor flaws, I really enjoyed this book. It's a good one to read on a rainy or overcast day, since it's full of that kind of atmosphere. At least for me. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #21,036 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #62 in Dystopian Fiction (Books) #114 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction #169 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store) | ## Images ![The Memory Police: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ceNjVmPpL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Beautiful, Poignant, Brilliant, Strange, Captivating, and Terrifying Tale *by E***B on February 27, 2025* Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police” blends dystopian fiction, science fiction, and magical realism into a mesmerizing exploration of memory and identity. This beautifully written tale is simultaneously poignant, brilliant, strange, captivating, and terrifying. The novel takes place on an unnamed island where objects periodically “disappear”—not just from people’s memories, but physically as well. The Memory Police systematically remove items, even books, from society, ensuring these items cannot trigger remembrance. What makes this premise so chilling is the totalitarian enforcement of forgetting—a true Orwellian tale of government control and authoritarian rule. As these disappearances accumulate, Ogawa shows how every aspect of our lives, down to the smallest objects, anchors our sense of reality and personal history. Something vanishes every day, erasing little pieces of people’s lives. Most island inhabitants forget these items immediately, going about their lives as if nothing has changed. But some remember—and these individuals live in constant danger, hunted by the Memory Police who enforce the disappearances. The novel had me asking profound questions: What happens to identity when both physical objects and memories are stolen? What do people become under such oppressive control? And what happens to those captured by the Memory Police, never to return? These mysteries kept me intrigued and engaged throughout. Under constant government surveillance, island residents attempt to maintain normalcy in an increasingly abnormal world. The protagonist’s struggle, alongside those who still remember, creates a tension that builds toward an ending that continued to haunt me long after finishing the last page. I devoured “The Memory Police” in nearly one sitting, captivated by its eerie atmosphere and philosophical depth. The novel’s peculiar beauty lies in how it lingers in the mind, raising questions about memory, authoritarianism, and what remains when our connections to the physical world are forcibly severed. Any book that keeps me questioning and reflecting long after the story ends is, in my estimation, truly exceptional. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A cozy book that reminds you to not forget *by J***N on April 16, 2023* Speculative science fiction that's light on science. Just like I like them. This is very reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguori's take on science fiction (Never Let Me Go and Clara and the Sun), where the story is more about people and exploring concepts related to the human condition than it is about a deep dive into technology. It's not a cautionary tale in the traditional sense with sci-fi. But it is a cautionary tale. We follow a very small cast of character (only one of them named) through their day-to-day lives on a remote island that is plagued by objects "disappearing." They don't visually disappear. They disappear from comprehension. This concept reinforces the themes of the novel, which I'll let you discover on your own, but it's one that I appreciated. This story doesn't hit you over the head with plot. The plot is pretty thin, in fact. But I was fine with that because the setting and the characters are ones I wanted to spend time with. Some people might find this boring for the above reason. It's not going to take you by the hand and pull you through an elaborate plot with twists and turns. In fact, most of the plot beats don't end up the way you expect, which is a good thing in my opinion. While I did grasp some of the things Ogawa was exploring, some of them didn't seem to add up in my mind. That doesn't mean they aren't there. Since this book was written in Japanese and translated into English, we know that much of what she explores is rooted in Eastern culture. Maybe she was pulling from Eastern concepts, or maybe she wasn't. Despite its minor flaws, I really enjoyed this book. It's a good one to read on a rainy or overcast day, since it's full of that kind of atmosphere. At least for me. ### ⭐⭐⭐ The Truncheon of Forgetting; the Hand of Remembering *by K***L on August 25, 2021* On a nameless island in a nameless sea, people just periodically forget important things in their lives. Emeralds, perfume, photographs. No, the items themselves never disappear; but sweeping, population-wide amnesia strips the items of meaning in human brains. Our protagonist, a writer, simply takes these disappearances for granted. But some people remember, and their memory is a threat to the island’s deeply bureaucratic social order. Novelist, essayist, and science journalist Yōko Ogawa is persistently prolific in her native Japanese, but her works have only trickled into English translation. This book, first published in 1994, has only newly appeared in English, rendered by her most frequent translator, Stephen Snyder. Having read one previous Ogawa novel, I awaited this one with great anticipation. Then, sadly, I made a good-faith attempt to read it. Our protagonist makes her living writing literary novels. (Hmmm.) She writes about people having realistic experiences, which she attempts to analyze, or at least make romantic for the reading populace. But around her, as playing cards and roses and birds become meaningless artifacts which most people remember distantly, if at all, the range of realistic experiences is becoming painfully circumscribed. She struggles to muster ideas and make a living. A flippant comment forces a realization on our protagonist: her beloved editor doesn’t forget when everybody else does. Our protagonist realizes this makes him a target for the Memory Police, whose ham-fisted but consistently polite raids quietly remove anybody who remembers what the social order deems forgotten. Unique knowledge, or an informed understanding of history, makes people dangerous to life on the island. You might notice something missing from this synopsis: proper nouns. There’s my first problem with this book. My previous Ogawa experience, her novel "The Housekeeper and the Professor," used this expressionistic vagueness to its advantage. But that novel was less than half the size of this one, with far fewer characters, set in a favorably genericized Japanese university city. This larger, busier novel needs some names just to keep the ensemble organized. The novelist decides to protect her editor by building a secret annex inside her house. To survive the Memory Police, the editor will have to live inside a tiny basement cube with minimal light, occasional food, and a prison-style toilet. This description combines the most non-specific elements of the Freudian id and Anne Frank’s notorious squat. The product seems both impractical, and artificially constrained. Meanwhile, the Memory Police stage periodic raids throughout the island, but apparently disappear between times. Our protagonist cycles the city with only momentary twinges of discomfort. This form of intrusive fascism seems uniquely Japanese, in that no matter how meddlesome, destructive, or scary their actions, their behavior is still polite, simply part of a background of social conformity that everyone accepts as necessary and normal. Even when members of the novelist’s network, actively complicit in her efforts to preserve her editor from kidnapping, get seized by the Memory Police, they simply accept this as preordained. Ah well, they seemingly say, such is the price of stability. Even knowing they’re breaking the law, harboring a fugitive, and keeping him alive through Rube Goldberg-like schemes, they seem largely unperturbed by the ubiquity of the polite fascist state. Brief reminder, this novel debuted in 1994, during the long hangover from Japan’s hypercharged 1980s economy. As Japan’s industrial state pulled its claws in and waited to see what happened next, people simply accepted their high accrued debts and diminished lifestyles. Japanese capitalism has, for decades, rewarded hard work and self-abnegation, creating that icon of post-boom malaise, the sararīman. Sticking your neck out isn’t considered heroic in Japan. Therefore, I assume Ogawa’s parable of enforced technocratic blandness must’ve made sense to its intended audience. But that context has gotten lost. A quarter-century later, across the Pacific, the story just feels curiously low-stakes. The Memory Police’s atrocities don’t seem to elicit an emotional response, even from those who perpetrate them. This isn’t helped by the dreamlike lack of specificity; I cared more about Ogawa’s contradictory geography than her characters. This saddens me. Having enjoyed Ogawa’s writing in the past, my inability to connect with her characters or plot this time around feels disappointing. Ogawa tells us something catastrophic is at stake in her story, but she holds everyone at arm’s length, discussing them with the courteous emotional detachment of an after-church picnic. I care more deeply about my inability to care, than I do about the novel. I expected so much, but sadly, I feel so little. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.nl/products/119472968-the-memory-police-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.nl/products/119472968-the-memory-police-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Netherlands* *Store origin: NL* *Last updated: 2026-06-06*