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The Buried Giant (Vintage International) Paperback – January 5, 2016

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 13,100 ratings

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day comes a luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory.
 
In post-Arthurian Britain, the wars that once raged between the Saxons and the Britons have finally ceased. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple, set off to visit their son, whom they haven't seen in years. And, because a strange mist has caused mass amnesia throughout the land, they can scarcely remember anything about him. As they are joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and an illustrious knight, Axl and Beatrice slowly begin to remember the dark and troubled past they all share.

By turns savage, suspenseful, and intensely moving,
The Buried Giant is a luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Spectacular. . . . The Buried Giant has the clear ring of legend, as graceful, original and humane as anything Ishiguro has written.”The Washington Post

“An exceptional novel. . . . The Buried Giant does what important books do: It remains in the mind long after it has been read, refusing to leave.”The New York Times Book Review

“Lush and thrilling, rolling the gothic, fantastical, political, and philosophical into one.”
The New Republic

“Mesmerizing. . . . A provocative, multilayered mosaic. . . . Lifetimes of myth, allegory, and epic discoveries are contained within.”
The Christian Science Monitor

“A literary tour de force so unassuming that you don't realize until the last page that you're reading a masterpiece.”
USA Today

“Splendid. . . . Excellent. . . .
The Buried Giant is a simple and powerful tale of love, aging and loss.”The Wall Street Journal

“Ishiguro is a master of the uncanny. . . . Few write about the mysteries of the human experience with such grace as Ishiguro, and his prodigious gifts are evident throughout the novel.”
San Francisco Chronicle

“Devastating . . . As emotionally ruinous an ending as any I’ve read in a very long time, and it made me circle back to the opening pages, to re-enter the strange mist of this sad and remarkable book.”
—Mark O’Connell, Slate

“A profound meditation on trauma, memory, and the collective lies nations and groups create to expiate their guilt.”
The Boston Globe

“If forced at knife-point to choose my favorite Ishiguro novel, I’d opt for
The Buried Giant. It uses the tropes of fantasy to set up a smoke-screen which the book then, by twists and turns, dispels. This reveal gives the book a shadow-plot, and layers of mystery . . . An ideas-enabler, a metaphor-animator.”—David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks

“Ishiguro is a deft gut-renovator of genres, bringing fresh life and feeling to hollowed-out conventions. . . . The love story at its center shimmers with a mythic and melancholy grace.”
Vulture

“A beautiful, heartbreaking book about the duty to remember and the urge to forget.”
The Guardian

“Powerful and disturbing. . . . Provokes strong emotions—and lingers long in the mind.”
The Economist

“A beautiful fable with a hard message at its core. . . . There won’t, I suspect, be a more important work of fiction published this year than
The Buried Giant.”—John Sutherland, The Times (London)

“A novel of imaginative daring that, in its subtleties of tone, mood and reflection, could be the work of no other writer. . . . In the manner of Cormac McCarthy’s
The Road, Ishiguro has created a fantastical alternate reality in which, in spite of the extremity of its setting and because of its integrity and emotional truth, you believe unhesitatingly.”Financial Times

About the Author

Kazuo Ishiguro is the 2017 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages. Both The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go have sold more than 1 million copies, and both were adapted into highly acclaimed films. Ishiguro's other work includes The Buried Giant, Nocturnes, A Pale View of the Hills, and An Artist of the Floating World.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (January 5, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307455793
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307455796
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.15 x 0.67 x 7.98 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 13,100 ratings

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Kazuo Ishiguro
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KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over fifty languages, and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have each sold more than 2 million copies. He was given a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
13,100 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story engaging and well-written with a dreamlike quality. They appreciate the superb prose and masterful writing style. The characters are described as engaging and human-like. Readers praise the book's style as delightful, elegant, and flowing smoothly. They find the memory themes profound and rich. Overall, customers consider it an excellent work by an amazing author.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

539 customers mention "Pacing"466 positive73 negative

Customers appreciate the book's pacing. They find the story interesting and engaging, with symbolism that makes it unusual. The writing is described as beautiful and engaging at the sentence level, providing a deeper insight into the book. Overall, readers praise the book for its uniqueness and suspenseful storytelling.

"...author who can create tension and suspense, and then sustain it consistently through a novel. That was certainly true with The Buried Giant...." Read more

"...in spite of all the shortcomings of The Buried Giant, this is a book that is unusual, it's not like any other novel you've read and it certainly is..." Read more

"...or the group level, as between the Saxons and Britons, is powerfully rendered. The prose is lovely and elegant...." Read more

"...and all individuals, you will be richly rewarded by reading this excellent novel...." Read more

276 customers mention "Writing quality"213 positive63 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book. They find the prose superb, personal, and well-written. The author does not pander to readers, but rather reveals secrets in an imaginative tale told through a fantasy world of knights and mythical creatures. The narrative is written in third person with a few first-person passages in an old English style. Readers describe the story as slow-paced and dreamy.

"...Don't get me wrong. It's beautifully written, yes, he's a master writer, no doubt about that...." Read more

"...Ishiguro loves a slow-paced, dreamy sort of narrative that reveals its secrets slowly, but there's an unfocused quality to this book that undermines..." Read more

"...The writing is outstanding, and the story is philosophical, like most of his work...." Read more

"...This is the best fantasy novel I've ever read. It is incredibly well written, the plot is tight and compelling, and the characters are very well..." Read more

84 customers mention "Character development"60 positive24 negative

Customers find the characters engaging and human-like. The writing is superb, with a shift between several character perspectives.

"...The narrative shifts between several characters' perspectives, rather than being a first-person retelling, as he used in the novels I read before...." Read more

"...well written, the plot is tight and compelling, and the characters are very well crafted. The book tackles some important themes...." Read more

"...the plot is boring and as noted by many reviewers here, characters are one-dimensional, it's hard to get emotionally involved in this book......" Read more

"...The characters have clear agendas and there are certainly plenty of strange folk met along the way or unexpected twists that the story takes, but..." Read more

45 customers mention "Style"33 positive12 negative

Customers enjoy the book's style. They find it engaging and easy to read, with a flowing narrative that makes it easy to understand the deeper meanings of the story.

"...The prose is lovely and elegant. I get what Ishiguro was going for here, but the reality is that it just didn't really work...." Read more

"...But all the characters were consistent, beautifully drawn, each an important member of the ensemble, each so sympathetic the reader had great..." Read more

"...The idea is quite clever and once again attractive, but the resulting story sounds too artificial and contrived to involve me into the devenir of..." Read more

"...The dark, ugly world view that emerges is in stark contrast to the gentle image of the old couple throughout the book...." Read more

38 customers mention "Memory"32 positive6 negative

Customers find the book a profound experience about memory, love, and death. They appreciate the complexity and contradictions of memory in an Arthurian fantasy. The story is rich in its consistent meditation on memory and how it defines and constrains us.

"...an intelligent, convoluted, deeply meaningful tale, which explores the themes of memory, deception, loneliness, love and loss, you will enjoy this..." Read more

"...pondering about the meaning of love, the ability to let go, the power of memories, and perhaps the unspoken quality and necessity of forgetfulness." Read more

"...The novel centres on the themes of love, memories, forgetfulness, loss, morals, ethics, honour and revenge...." Read more

"...as a "luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory"...." Read more

18 customers mention "Author"18 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the author's writing style. They say he is one of the best living authors in the UK. The book contains fantastic elements but does not read like a fantasy novel. Readers appreciate the author's ability to blend genres and praise the new side of his writing.

"Ishiguro's novel contains fantastic elements, but it does not read like a fantasy novel, and as such, it has the potential to turn off readers..." Read more

"...He is one of the UK's best living authors. I enjoy when authors blend genre. A story of quests and themes of identity and chivalry...." Read more

"...Ishiguro has got to be one of the absolute best authors of our times...." Read more

"...the end I fell in love with the story and look for more from this brilliant author." Read more

399 customers mention "Thought provoking"259 positive140 negative

Customers have different views on the book. Some find it profound and magical, with intense scenes and a bewitching historical backdrop. Others feel the fantasy aspects are flat and boring, and the plot is boring.

"...tale out of the mists of British legend, one with a deliciously steady build of suspense and a satisfying, but unmerciful and melancholy, sense of..." Read more

"...Ishiguro loves a slow-paced, dreamy sort of narrative that reveals its secrets slowly, but there's an unfocused quality to this book that undermines..." Read more

"...On one level, it works, on another it doesn't, largely because the plot is boring and as noted by many reviewers here, characters are one-dimensional..." Read more

"...This is a unique and interesting way to depict combat, in many ways preferable to drawn out fight scenes that seem to go nowhere...." Read more

64 customers mention "Readability"24 positive40 negative

Customers have different views on the book's readability. Some find it simple and engaging, with consistent explanations that make the story comprehensible. Others find it tedious with excessive verbiage that makes it difficult to understand.

"...to move along at a compelling pace, but it instead gets bogged down for pages at a time. Adding to the lackluster pacing is the ending...." Read more

"...be at first and although there are indeed extraordinary and consistent explanations for all that has occurred, the author goes out of his way to..." Read more

"...I just don't get it I suppose. I found it tedious, dragging, apparently working some metaphor that I just didn't give two hoots about...." Read more

"...and experience various trials. The summary is intentionally vague since the gradual reveal is part of what makes it compelling...." Read more

Mildly dissatisfied
3 out of 5 stars
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The book arrived on time but the cover and first page of the book were ripped slightly.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2015
    I come to this book as a relatively new Ishiguro reader. I read Never Let Me Go last year and just finished We Were Orphans (both of which I liked very much). Then I splurged and ordered this new one as soon as it was available. Comparing my reaction to some of the other reviews, this lack of "history" with the author may color my assessment.

    As you can see from my five star rating, I enjoyed this book a great deal. Ishiguro has woven a mysterious and introspective tale out of the mists of British legend, one with a deliciously steady build of suspense and a satisfying, but unmerciful and melancholy, sense of revelation at the end. The setting and plot seem uncharacteristic of him based on my other reading, but still offered the same probing exploration of the human capacity for love, evil, alienation, and self-deception.

    I really appreciate an author who can create tension and suspense, and then sustain it consistently through a novel. That was certainly true with The Buried Giant. As with those other two novels, this narrative meanders and drops hints and jumbles timelines in a way that I truly enjoyed. If you like a directly linear chronology this is probably not the book (or author) for you. I appreciated Ishiguro's method of moving forward slowly, then doubling back and doubling back again to refract the story in new ways, tease out allegiances and suspicions between the characters, and keep the reader guessing. The narrative shifts between several characters' perspectives, rather than being a first-person retelling, as he used in the novels I read before. These shifts can make the thread hard to follow at times, but I liked the challenge of that. It added to the feeling of disorientation that the story seemed to be designed to create, forcing me to constantly re-asses each character.

    In this case, the reason for the opacity of the story line is a more explicit plot device, rather than a function of any of the narrators' personalities, as in Never Let Me Go or When We Were Orphans. However, I felt the elements of fantasy and magic in the story were judiciously used and served the story well. I found the connections to Arthurian legend fascinating. They added to the atmosphere of mystery and foreboding (in a good way) as I tried to tie my memories of that myth to what was going on in this story. Ishiguro twists those connections to great effect, using them to disrupt my expectations and to shine a (not always flattering) spotlight on the characters' motivations in their dealings with each other.

    In the end, I felt like enough of my questions and guesses about the characters' pasts and outcomes were answered, without the conclusion feeling at all pat or contrived.
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2017
    I confess this is the first Ishiguro novel I read and I came to it because he won this year's Nobel. So I was curious. I'm always curious when a writer wins a Nobel, sometimes it's helped me discover a new author I like, most of the time it's been a disappointment (for example, I can't stand Orhan Pamuk). So I wanted to find out about Ishiguro and try to figure out whether I liked him or not. And I picked this novel because it was his latest, though I'd seen Remains of the Day (the film) and loved it. I probably should have read that one because I was rather disappointed with the Buried Giant.

    Don't get me wrong. It's beautifully written, yes, he's a master writer, no doubt about that. But the book is a bit of a bore, largely because it is slow-paced and so full of clichés. It's an allegory, it's a fable, yes, but I'm very tired of dragons and pixies and mysterious illnesses and mists that bring memory loss. Terribly banal descriptions of post-Arthurian Britain, a dark, muddy medieval time that is tiresomely predictable. As to the dialogues, well, totally unrealistic, stilted, uninspired. Old Axl calls his wife "princess" every single time he addresses her, and by the end of the book, you feel like screaming STOP!

    As to the deep "message"the author is out to convey, in a way, he doesn't do such a bad job of it. First he clearly confuses his readers and I think that is rather interesting (I wonder whether he does it on purpose). I've been looking at reviews here, and some are quite intriguing, seeing it as a tale of love between two octogenarians afflicted with Alzheimer's, others seeing it as a philosophical reflection on the roots of violence and war. The principle that Ishiguro is out to illustrate is clear enough: People live in an uneasy peace with each other largely because they don't think about (or don't remember) the wrongs they've endured in the past. The "buried giant" is made up of past hatred, and when the "mist" that makes people forget about such dark and terrible things starts to lift, the giant rises again, expect war and death to return!

    It makes for an interesting political theory. Certainly Hitler came to power because Germany felt wronged by the outcome of World War I, in "Mein Kampf" he stirred up memories and called for revenge. So, yes, I can certainly "buy" this idea. But is a long fantasy novel the best way to convey this theory? I'm not sure. On one level, it works, on another it doesn't, largely because the plot is boring and as noted by many reviewers here, characters are one-dimensional, it's hard to get emotionally involved in this book...

    Will I read another Ishiguro book? Yes, I will. I'm still undecided whether this is an author who deserves the Nobel, maybe he does after all...Because, in spite of all the shortcomings of The Buried Giant, this is a book that is unusual, it's not like any other novel you've read and it certainly isn't a "normal" fantasy, it doesn't fit into the genre. And, when you've finished reading, it stays with you, it forces you to ask yourself questions, to try and understand it - particularly the end, which is totally unexpected.
    45 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • helena pereira
    5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom.
    Reviewed in Brazil on May 14, 2022
    Gostei muito.
    O inglês não é muito difícil.
  • Placeholder
    5.0 out of 5 stars Profound
    Reviewed in India on August 16, 2023
    The buried giant is not like other ishiguro's books I have read, but it's as good as his other books. You harbour on a beautiful journey with his stories.
  • Cliente de Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Una bella obra literaria
    Reviewed in Mexico on May 5, 2017
    Una bella obra literaria que se desenvuelve al paso del amor que se trabaja atentamente. Hacía mucho tiempo que una lectura no me envolvía entre sus palabras y misterios de la forma en que lo hizo El gigante enterrado. Es una tierna historia sobre una pareja de bretones, ya con el pelo encanecido, que vive sin memoria de aquello que los unió en primer lugar, entre la bruma de la memoria recuerdan que tal vez tuvieron un hijo, nombre y rostro no recuerdan, pero la mujer está segura de que si marcha en su búsqueda éste se encargará de ellos en sus últimos días. La travesía que emprenden para buscar al retoño de su amor, adentrará al lector en un mundo rodeado de fantasmas y misterios dejados atrás por los romanos y los caballeros de Arturo, donde le costará dilucidar si en efecto hay seres mitológicos orbitando alrededor de la realidad que viven los personajes o si esos seres solo forman parte de las cabezas de los habitantes de estos personajes literarios.
  • 💐
    5.0 out of 5 stars Incantevole
    Reviewed in Italy on November 21, 2017
    Spesso il vero lettore appassionato e librodipendente è avido e pretenzioso, si aspetta qualcosa dalla storia che sta leggendo, quasi il piacere di leggere gli consegnasse il diritto di sapere, capire, venir messo al corrente. Tutto e subito.
    Ma con Ishiguro, la questione è diversa. O tutto, o subito.
    E se il lettore sceglie il subito, rimarrà deluso. Molto deluso.
    The Buried Giant ci offre il tutto.
    Ma per accoglierlo, ci vuole tempo.
    Ci da le risposte a tutte le nostre domande, ma per sentirle bisogna fare silenzio.
    Ci propone uno sguardo sulla vita e sull'amore che, subito, nell'immediato non ci interessa. Ma poi...ci cambia dentro.
    La reazione spontanea e'questa:
    Ma che storia è?
    E quanto lento va? Insomma non succede mai nulla!
    Leggi, ascolta, immagina. Accade tutto, tutta la vita.
    La vera azione de Il Gigante Sepolto è fuori dalla carta, oltre le parole di Ishiguro. Le parole sono solo strumenti con i quali ci viene detto qualcosa di enorme, così enorme che nel subito non ci sta.
    La vera azione è dentro di noi.
    Questo libro non è un romanzo, non contiene forse nemmeno una storia.
    Ma tutto il resto sì.
  • A_student
    5.0 out of 5 stars A prize-winning novel about the importance of memories to people.
    Reviewed in Singapore on September 26, 2022
    Is it more important to forget in order to have peace, or more important to remember in order to have justice? Is your love true if you have been made to forget the unhappy parts of your relationship? The Buried Giant explores these questions beautifully.