The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro: book review

The Buried Giant (2015) is set in the times of the Saxons in England.

An elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, set out from their village to look for their son, whom they have not seen in years: ‘I don’t recall his face now at all,’ says Axl.

They set out in the mist and rain in the Great Plain, in a land of ogres and giants. This means stepping out of their village into a world of strangers. They are not Saxons – Axl and Beatrice are Britons. ‘Saxons have their wild ways, but they’ll welcome a traveller.’

Nevertheless, Axl and Beatrice must be careful. If they get lost, they’ll end up in Querig country, the home of the she-dragon.

But they are old, and their memory is not what it used to be. The mist is not only the weather, but the mist in their minds.

I have read Ishiguro’s book, An Artist of the Floating World (1986) – also about memories – and liked it very much. This one is different. His other book is set in the real world, but this one is a fantasy. I didn’t connect with the elderly couple, because their character development wasn’t as well-crafted as the characters in his other book. And I had difficulty with the fantasy aspects. For me, An Artist of the Floating World was more enjoyable.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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