I selected this book to read with my library's book club. It's a very interesting story with some magical realism and general strangeness which I like. Most of the book club members enjoyed it and we had a great discussion about it because what is really going on in the book is pretty open to reader interpretation. It was interesting to hear what others thought was the cause of the disappearances.

Though I’m very late to reviewing this one, I really enjoyed it! It kept me interested, and I would recommend it to anyone who dabbles in this genre.

The idea was interesting and the writing fairly good - but I felt like I was skimming along throughout without my feelings every being fully engaged, nor my attention being strongly connected to the story. I almost wonder if this would be better rewritten as a short story.

This book is really more a quiet dystopian that is more a story about loss and memory than about the dystopia itself. I absolutely loved it! I am looking forward to going back to read more by this author!

I don't believe I can write a review that would do this title justice. It's a haunting, compelling nighmare-esque story that you can't stop reading.

What a haunting and thought-provoking novel. I will be thinking about this book's lessons on memory and history for some time. Thank goodness for fiction, and for beautiful translation.

I absolutely loved this novel. It was beautifully written. The mood and tone was exceptional. The story was an important one. I was surprised by the subtle beauty of the whole thing and devoured it in a day. This is a shining example of Japanese fiction.

I believe that the translator did a good job in translating this novel to english. some very nice and meditative portions throughout the book on the notion of loss and forgetting. However, I don't think the author took the story and really illuminated any higher truths or a bigger "moral of the story." it literally just faded away at the end.

It was a good read. It made me emotional at times. It made me learn few lessons reading it. Saying this, it was a good read but I was hoping that it would capture my heart better. 4 out of 5 stars.

For as long as the novelist can remember, things have disappeared from her island. Overnight, people's recollections grow faint and colorless. All of a given object will vanish or wither. The examples that don't evanesce on cue are thrown into communal pyres. Anyone who displays reluctance to cooperate with the purge is rounded up by the Memory Police. They also take those rare individuals who, like the narrator's mother, can somehow remember what was lost. Soon, she can tell, they will come for her editor. A haunting and surreal novel that yields no easy answers. Thanks, Netgalley.

*Received via NetGalley for review*

A beautiful, dreamy, and existentially terrifying tale of an unarmed protagonist on an island where things are gradually disappearing. They don't physically disappear: they still exist, but residents lose all knowledge, memories, and perception of them, rendering them functionally invisible.

There are a select few who can remember, who are not affected. R, the main character's friend, is one of them. Her mother was another. Unfortunately, the protagonist is not, and neither is her friend the old man.

I tend to find Japanese fiction much slower and more anonymous than American fiction, and The Memory Police is typical of that. The young woman and the old man are never named, and neither are any other characters. They are not the ones who are important; what they're going through is. And, while these disturbing things are happening and acknowledged, no one panics about it. They all accept, even as the disappearances get more extreme.

The Memory Police, themselves, don't play as much of a role as is stated: there are a few encounters with them, and they are the reason for the main conflict, but once things get really serious, they fade away.

The young woman's tale of the typist and her teacher is even throughout, and beautiful and terrifying allegory for her situation. It really ties everything together.

The Memory Police had a very dream-like quality to it (or nightmare-like, more accurately). One of those dreams that almost feels like reality. The writing was beautiful, although I did have a hard time connecting with it at points. However, I think this was one of those cases where I just picked up a certain type of book at the wrong time - had I been more in the mood for an eerie, slow-paced read, I think I would've been engaged a little more. That being said, I still enjoyed a lot about it. I particularly liked that the author didn't go into too much details of the logistics of the island and the disappearances - a lot is left unanswered, but it's all from the perspective of an island inhabitant so that made sense to me. This is a really thought-provoking read on the power of memories and nostalgia, and how those things make up who we are.

I finished reading this book last night and had dreams about it. Years before, I read and enjoyed Yoko Ogawa's novels and short stories. The Memory Police has that similar quiet eerie tone that her other writings carry. It's beautiful and haunting. For a dystopian novel, the premise itself is not different from many of the classic dystopian novels, i.e. 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, but the idea that a government can strip certain memory away from the citizen is quite interesting. It's certainly one of the most noteworthy novels I have read this year - the one that I will remember and talk about with my friends and family for years to come.

A beuatiful, surreal novel about loss and memory. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police details how it can happen that people stop fighting change and injustice and just get used to the new reality. A must read!

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review of this book.

In this Yoko Ogawa book, objects have been disappearing for years, and with them, people's memories of the items themselves. However, those who do not lose these memories are under increasing scrutiny and being taken away by the titular Memory Police. This haunting tale will get you thinking about the devastating impact of the oppression to conform to a life prescribed by someone else, and of the loss of creative autonomy.

I loved the premise of this novel but I fell short in totally understanding what the author was trying to say. Memory and reality, tho not the same thing, are closely related. When memory fails, reality changes. The passivity of the characters disturbed me, as it should as a warning to readers to not simply accept without questioning dictates from a governing body. It was somewhat reassuring to see the basic goodness and caring shown by those same characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harvill Secker for the ARC to read and review.

I really wanted to like this book but I wish this book filled in some gaps in the plot. So the island is taken over by.....someone, something? And they erase memories but......who? How? Why? I'm having a hard time finishing this book, maybe it's all revealed at the end but the main character has almost no character development so I'm not that interested in her, the reasoning behind the plot problems isn't clear at all. It just didn't hold up.

This book is so relevant to our current political/societal climate. The book itself was very well written, rich with character emotions and development. The ending will leave you feeling haunted.