The Memory Police
First edition cover (Kodansha, 1994) | |
| Author | Yōko Ogawa |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Traci Kato-Kiriyama |
| Original title | 密やかな結晶 (Hisoyaka na Kesshō) |
| Translator | Stephen Snyder |
| Cover artist | Michiaki Mochizuki |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Science fiction, Dystopian fiction |
| Publisher | Kodansha |
Publication date | 26 January 1994 |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English | 13 August 2019 (Pantheon) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 411 (Kodansha) 288 (Pantheon) |
| ISBN | 978-4-06-205843-8 |
| 895.63/5 | |
| LC Class | PL858.G37 H5713 2019 |
The Memory Police (Japanese: 密やかな結晶, Hepburn: Hisoyaka na Kesshō; "Secret Crystallization" or "Quiet Crystallization") is a 1994 science fiction dystopian novel by Yōko Ogawa. The novel, dream-like and melancholy in tone in a manner influenced by modernist writer Franz Kafka, takes place on an island with a setting reminiscent of that in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. An English translation by Stephen Snyder was published by Pantheon Books and Harvill Secker in 2019. A film adaptation was announced in October 2020, with Lily Gladstone in the lead role and with Reed Morano slated as director and Charlie Kaufman as screenwriter.