The Buried Giant: A Novel

Not long after the time of King Arthur, an old couple sets out to see their son who is living in another village. Axl and Beatrice don’t remember much about their son, just as they don’t remember much about many details of their lives. A strange “mist” has somehow settled around them and everyone else in the land, obscuring memories. But they feel if they just start on the journey, they will somehow find their son. On the way, they run across the old knight Sir Gawain, a brave young Saxon warrior, and a youth whose village has turned against him after an attack by some ogres. The paths and plans of these people converge and merge in various ways, and Axl and Beatrice find they may be able to lift the mist and regain their memories. But is the mist necessary? Is it a key part of keeping peace in the land?

The Buried Giant is a fable, an exploration of the power of memory and of collective forgetting after atrocity. It can at times seem simplistic, but its messages are understated. The couple is sweet and truly the heart of the story, and the conclusion is just right.