From the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day
The Romans have long since departed and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But, at least, the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. Axl and Beatrice, a couple of elderly Britons, decide that now is the time, finally, for them to set off across this troubled land of mist and rain to find the son they have not seen for years, the son they can scarcely remember. They know they will face many hazards—some strange and otherworldly—but they cannot foresee how their journey will reveal to them the dark and forgotten corners of their love for each other. Nor can they foresee that they will be joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and a knight—each of them, like Axl and Beatrice, lost in some way to his own past, but drawn inexorably toward the comfort, and the burden, of the fullness of a life’s memories.
Sometimes savage, sometimes mysterious, always intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade tells a luminous story about the act of forgetting and the power of memory, a resonant tale of love, vengeance, and war.
I found this to be a pretty bland literary interpretation of the fantasy genre, though beautifully-written as one would expect of Ishiguro. It follows a very simple journey narrative where the protagonists need to travel from Point A to Point B, encounter tasks they must complete along the way, and pick up a few stray travellers. The result is a story with many a dull point which ultimately feels a bit rote. The fantasy elements were subtle, which I suppose is an interesting artistic choice, but fantasy feels like a genre that's necessarily about going all-in. I liked the main characters - it's not often a novel centers around an elderly couple. There were lots of interesting ideas about individual and cultural memory. I was particularly interested in the idea that (having the capacity for) memory can be destructive. I also didn't mind the ambiguous ending! Definitely didn't blow my socks off, though.
