James Nicoll Reviews

Yōko Ogawa’s 2003 The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel is a stand-alone mainstream novel about … a housekeeper and a professor. The 2009 translation is by Stephen Snyder.

The housekeeper, a hard-working single mother, is used to Akebono Housekeeping Agency’s frequent reassignments. Her latest client has very particular needs, needs that previous domestic staff struggled to meet. Will the housekeeper be successful where others failed or will she be another anonymous face in a succession of housekeepers?

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Yoko Ogawa’s 1994 dystopic The Memory Police: A Novel was originally published under the title Hisoyaka na kesshō. The 2019 translation is by Stephen Snyder.

Life on the island is a process of slow erosion, as memory after memory is stripped from the inhabitants. Escape is impossible; among the memories lost is any recollection of seafaring. 

A minority are seemingly immune to this process. No worries! Where there is some natural immunity, the Memory Police intervene without fail or mercy.

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Yoko Ogawa’s collection Revenge was first published in 1998 as Kamoku na shigai, Midara na tomurai. Under the current title it was made available in English in 2013 by Picador. 

Revenge includes eleven macabre short stories. The collection is not long but it is very good. 

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