A small town on a small island experiences strange losses. Items are collectively forgotten by the inhabitants and destroyed en masse under the watchful eye of the oppressive Memory Police. A woman working as a novelist dutifully forgets everything she's supposed to until her editor admits that his memory remains intact and must go into hiding. She harbors him in a secret room in her house as the world outside continues to forget. But the unspoken question hovers above the town: what will be forgotten when there is nothing else to forget?Originally published in 1994 and only recently translated into English, this is a quiet reflection on loss, authoritarianism, denial, delusion, and what it means to be human. It defies traditional genres but is a thought-provoking (if not disturbing) read. It was well worth the wait!
Publisher's description:
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, things are disappearing. First, animals and flowers. Then objects--ribbons, bells, photographs. Then, body parts. Most of the island's inhabitants fail to notice these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the mysterious 'memory police,' who are committed to ensuring that the disappeared remain forgotten. When a young novelist realizes that more than her career is in danger, she hides her editor beneath her floorboards, and together, as fear and loss close in around them, they cling to literature as the last way of preserving the past.