The Memory Police
Pantheon (Verlag)
978-0-375-71533-4 (ISBN)
- Titel erscheint in neuer Auflage
- Artikel merken
NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor.
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses-until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power 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 woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.
YOKO OGAWA has won every major Japanese literary award. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, and Zoetrope: All-Story. Her works include The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas; The Housekeeper and the Professor; Hotel Iris; and Revenge. She lives in Hyogo.
1 I sometimes wonder what was disappeared first-among all the things that have vanished from the island. "Long ago, before you were born, there were many more things here," my mother used to tell me when I was still a child. "Transparent things, fragrant things . . . fluttery ones, bright ones . . . wonderful things you can't possibly imagine. "It's a shame that the people who live here haven't been able to hold such marvelous things in their hearts and minds, but that's just the way it is on this island. Things go on disappearing, one by one. It won't be long now," she added. "You'll see for yourself. Something will disappear from your life." "Is it scary?" I asked her, suddenly anxious. "No, don't worry. It doesn't hurt, and you won't even be particularly sad. One morning you'll simply wake up and it will be over, before you've even realized. Lying still, eyes closed, ears pricked, trying to sense the flow of the morning air, you'll feel that something has changed from the night before, and you'll know that you've lost something, that something has been disappeared from the island." My mother would talk like this only when we were in her studio in the basement. It was a large, dusty, rough-floored room, built so close to the river on the north side that you could clearly hear the sound of the current. I would sit on the little stool that was reserved for my use, as my mother, a sculptor, sharpened a chisel or polished a stone with her file and talked on in her quiet voice. "The island is stirred up after a disappearance. People gather in little groups out in the street to talk about their memories of the thing that's been lost. There are regrets and a certain sadness, and we try to comfort one another. If it's a physical object that has been disappeared, we gather the remnants up to burn, or bury, or toss into the river. But no one makes much of a fuss, and it's over in a few days. Soon enough, things are back to normal, as though nothing has happened, and no one can even recall what it was that disappeared." Then she would interrupt her work to lead me back behind the staircase to an old cabinet with rows of small drawers. "Go ahead, open any one you like." I would think about my choice for a moment, studying the rusted oval handles. I always hesitated, because I knew what sorts of strange and fascinating things were inside. Here in this secret place, my mother kept hidden many of the things that had been disappeared from the island in the past. When at last I made my choice and opened a drawer, she would smile and place the contents on my outstretched palm. "This is a kind of fabric called 'ribbon' that was disappeared when I was just seven years old. You used it to tie up your hair or decorate a skirt. "And this was called a 'bell.' Give it a shake-it makes a lovely sound. "Oh, you've chosen a good drawer today. That's called an 'emerald,' and it's the most precious thing I have here. It's a keepsake from my grandmother. They're beautiful and terribly valuable, and at one point they were the most highly prized jewels on the island. But their beauty has been forgotten now. "This one is thin and small, but it's important. When you had something you wanted to tell someone, you would write it down on a piece of paper and paste this 'stamp' on it. Then they would deliver it for you, anywhere at all. But that was a long time ago . . ." Ribbon, bell, emerald, stamp. The words that came from my mother's mouth thrilled me, like the names of little girls from distant countries or new species of plants. As I listened to her talk, it made me happy to imagine a time when all these things had a place here on the island. Yet that was also rather difficult to do. The objects in my palm seemed to cower there, absolutely still, like little animals in hibernation, send
| Erscheinungsdatum | 29.07.2019 |
|---|---|
| Übersetzer | Stephen Snyder |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 141 x 210 mm |
| Gewicht | 261 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction |
| Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen | |
| Schlagworte | best books of 2019 • best sellers 2019 • bestsellers 2019 • crime books • Dystopian Fiction • Earthquake • Japan • japanese literature • Memory • Mystery • mystery books • national book award winners • new york times best sellers 2019 fiction • Novels • political books • political fiction • post apocalyptic fiction • Science Fiction • science fiction books • Sci-fi • Sci Fi • Speculative Fiction • Surveillance • Suspense • The Diving Pool • The Housekeeper and the Professor • thriller books • Thrillers • Totalitarianism • Tsunami • Yoko Ogawa |
| ISBN-10 | 0-375-71533-9 / 0375715339 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-375-71533-4 / 9780375715334 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
aus dem Bereich
