Kazuo Ishiguro "The Buried Giant" (Faber & Faber)
Britons Axl and Beatrice are from post-Arthurian times. They live in a village that's more of a warren than what we would think of as a village. They are going traveling to the village where their son lives. They have seemingly forgotten about him and now there's a sense of urgency. They've forgotten their son because there's a mist throughout the land that is making people forget many things. As they finally begin their journey they come across a Saxon warrior and an orphan boy. They also meet Sir Gawain on the mission to slay the dragon.
Kazuo weaves a tale of Arthurian legend, with dragons, ogres, strange mists, knights, quests, and prophecies. He takes these mythical elements and crafts a story of a couple, Beatrice and Axl, on a journey to find their son, who they have almost completely forgotten about, due to a strange mist which robs the land's inhabitants of their memories.
I really enjoyed this book. It appears to be a simple story of an older couple who have forgotten much of their life but read a little closer and you'll find Ishiguro's brilliance, there are so many layers to this story but they aren't something that are obvious which is rather refreshing.
I also liked the respect shown, it gave this a true feeling of that post-Arthurian time of chivalry and knights - as well as adding to that feeling of forgetfulness and begs the question - when you don't know someone are you more formal than you are with someone you know? We sometimes forget in these social media rampant times where we are finding more and more disrespect - because it's so easy to be disrespectful of people you don't see? - about how formal people were in other ages.
It takes it time to develop and at first i found it frustrating but stick with it and you will enjoy the story.
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