But the narrator, who falls prey to the full brunt of the disappearances, feels only emptiness and confusion when she encounters these objects that should no longer exist. When the narrator is a young girl, her mother shows her some of these objects, explaining memories attached to each one. The unnamed narrator’s mother can remember every forgotten object and hides many of these objects in a chest of drawers hidden in their basement. If they are caught with disappeared objects or indicate that they retain memories, they are taken away by the Memory Police. Most residents accept the disappearance, discard the object if possible, then continue with their lives. The disappearances have become such an integral, accepted part of life that each subsequent disappearance garners little response. Whenever something disappears, the residents lose all affective ties, memories, and even understanding of whatever the object was. The island’s residents always have a sense of when something is about to go, even if they never know what it will be.
The disappearances range from mundane objects, such as hats or perfume, to wildlife like roses and birds. The unnamed island of Yoko Ogawa’s novel, The Memory Police (originally published in Japanese in 1994 and translated into English by Stephen Snyder in 2019), is a hazy, unsettling place where things inexplicably disappear.
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