What will you do if things start disappearing from your life? Not just physically but the memory of it too! That is what happens in this small island town. Hats, birds, music, perfume - things begin to disappear and as they do, they are wiped off from people's memory as well. People of the island gather together to burn or bury the last bits of those items that have disappeared, so that they are completely gone from their lives, and then they go on with their lives. The ones who are fortunate (or unfortunate?) enough to remember things that have disappeared are taken away by the Memory Police, not to see them ever. When the protagonist (a young novelist) finds out that her editor (R) remembers everything, she is determined to save him and hide him from the memory police. With help from her only friend and acquaintance she builds a hiding place for R. The story takes a different turn from there. R tries to help the author and her friend to remember things that have disappeared. He says it is their only way to live and revive the parts of themselves that they have lost along with the memory. As they refer, it creates a "hollow" in them and they just learn to live with it.
A very unusual and haunting plot. Yet written with such beauty, makes it almost poetic. The author's ability to create this surreal world and make it believable is what makes the book stand out. As the protagonist is a novelist, there is also a parallel story that she is writing. Amazing how this second story is weaved into the actual one and how they become one in the climax. Her helplessness in not being able to remember anything and finally accepting it are few of the heart breaking moments that will stay with me for a long time. Her way of consoling herself by saying that the hollow will remain and slowly we will move on with it. Won't we all leave everything behind at the end?
