The story starts out fairly simply: Axl and Beatrice, an elderly Briton couple, decide one day to visit their son’s village, a journey long delayed though for why they cannot recall.Īlong the way they’re joined by Wistan, a mysterious Saxon warrior from the Fens, Edwin, a young Saxon boy rescued from ogres, and Sir Gawain, knight and nephew of the illustrious Arthur, who is seemingly an old and garrulous shadow of his former glory. In a manner similar to his last novel Never Let Me Go (in which Ishiguro used cloning and the ethical questions/problems it produces – a staple motif of the science fiction genre – to explore themes of identity), The Buried Giant uses a mythical setting and elements of the fantasy genre – mythical creatures, knights, quests – to explore the theme of memory, in particular that of collective memory and its relationship with conflict and personal identity. How do we, as different tribes, as a species, remember atrocities? And how do these memories shape us as individuals? Early Medieval Britain: the Romans have gone, their roads and villas long reclaimed by the landscape King Arthur is dead, and across a bleak land of moors and valleys, through which ogres maraud and pixies ensnare, a strange mist has descended.
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