The Memory Police

　　讀賣文學獎　書店大獎《博士熱愛的算式》作者、芥川獎得主小川洋子　令人掩卷難忘的記憶之書

　　「在妳出生之前，島上曾經有好多好多東西。晶瑩剔透的、芳香宜人的、閃閃發亮的、光豔動人的……總之，有許多妳作夢也想不到的美好事物。」

　　小時候，母親總是對我訴說關於「消滅」的故事。

　　我們居住的小島上，事物陸續消滅。緞帶、鈴鐺、郵票、綠寶石、香水……這些東西消滅的時候，大家的記憶便隨之燒毀埋葬，心靈也逐漸乾涸枯竭，徒留記憶的空洞。只有母親把這些遺落的記憶細心收藏在祕密櫃子裡。然而，我卻意外失去了母親、失去了父親、失去了雙親的遺物……如今，生命中另一個重要的事物又即將消滅……

　　當世上的一切消失殆盡，唯有收藏著祕密結晶的人，才能擁抱未來活下去。

　　(中文版《秘密結晶》由麥田出版)

*** 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ***
*** 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.