WPL’s Bookn’ with Friends Group to Discuss The
Memory Police
“I sometimes wonder what was disappeared
first – among all the things that have vanished from the island.” So begins Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police,
Winfield Public Library’s May selection for Bookn’ with Friends book club. All are welcome to join the book discussion
on Monday, May 23rd at 6:30pm (zoom option also available). Copies of the book are currently available
for check out at the library’s front desk.
First published in Japan in 1994 and
translated to English in 2019, The
Memory Police is a haunting novel that explores questions of power, trauma,
and state surveillance. It was a
finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature, as well as
for the 2020 International Booker Prize. Chosen to meet WPL’s May Reading Challenge of a Sci-Fi book, The Memory Police has a 3.76 rating on
goodreads, and is 274 pages long. From the publisher:
On an unnamed
island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses –
until things become 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.
WPL’s 2022 Reading Challenge encourages
everyone, no matter what age, to read along with us. Each month we will feature a theme and
encourage you to select a book that fits. Participate as much as you want – you are welcome to take on one, two,
or all 12 challenges. 2022 Reading
Challenge topics are: January – the
first book in a series; Feb – off the new shelf; March – a spin-off or
retelling of a classic; April – a book about weather or climate; May – a Sci-Fi
book; June – a book that involves water; July – a book set in a library or
bookstore; August – a book less than 200 pages; September – a book that
involves music; October – a mystery book; November – a book chosen for its
cover; December – a book with “light” or “lite” in the title.
