Advertisement

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant

Apr 15, 2015

From multi-award-winner Kazuo Ishiguro comes the tale (10 years in the writing) of elderly Britons Axl and Beatrice, whose memories, like many around them, are being slowly consumed by the breath of a resident dragon.

Setting off across their divided, ancient land – one plagued by ogres and Saxons and mad monks – in search of their son, the couple are constantly plagued by the loss of the past and the insecurity of the future.

Buried-Giant-coverIshiguro (author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker-Prize-winning The Remains of the Day) has written a fable, one focused primarily on society and its inherent trivialities, but also one that drifts, like memory itself, into personal crisis and fear.

InDaily in your inbox. The best local news every workday at lunch time.
By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement andPrivacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

How will Axl and Beatrice deal with the boatman’s questions about their love, should they reach the crossing to the island? This is the main thread, often unravelled into mystic sidebars and underground slayings but always neatly re-tied by Ishiguo’s mastery of the story.

Accompanied on their journey by a Saxon warrior and a strange boy bitten by a dragon, then aided and abetted by an ancient knight of King Arthur, Axl and Beatrice must not only confront their own loss of identity, but also trust, when trust is the least of their diminishing abilities.

This simplistically written but intricate tale journeys slowly through a land forgotten by many, and about to be claimed again by the ever-marauding hordes of history. While it is not fantastical, nor breath-taking, Ishiguro nonetheless continues to write in a unique voice, one that echoes in the subconscious rather than screams at the conscious – and that is a rare gift, almost as rare as the gift uncovered by the buried giant.

The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is published by Faber & Faber, $29.99.

Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.