The Buried Giant

I felt like I was entering another world when reading this.  Made me think of Britain's colonial crimes and how the ongoing effects are often swept under the rug and overlooked.

A beautiful written, thoughtful, and deeply moving novel which deals with the most profound questions ... who are we, and how will we live our lives, as individuals and as societies?

Incidentally, I listened to this novel on Audible and the reader was superb. Recommended.

For a book that is a fantasy novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the people who have recommended this book to me are invariably neither fantasy fans nor Ishiguro fans, which always struck me as a bit of a curiosity. But I now realize that this makes perfect sense. For fantasy fans, this metaphysical, allegorical novel must seem rambling and derivative - for people who have read a lot of Ishiguro before, there's nothing new here. The Unconsoled, while confusing and long, is considerably more lighthearted, funnier, and optimistic than The Buried Giant - and one of the most impressionable books I have ever read. The Buried Giant hits hard in the moment, but that is largely the responsibility of the last few chapters.

The Buried Giant was my fifth Ishiguro, and, like Klara and the Sun, I felt he has been running out of plot and character tricks for a while. The slow reveal of the memories behind the mist, the coincidences of characters meeting each other, mysterious figures appearing on roads, and the sunny-at-first relationship of Axl and Beatrice, came straight out of his previous two novels. It was not until the ending that I found myself surprised or unable to predict a plot point - maybe I've been reading too much epic fantasy, but I wanted more.

Thematically, this might be Ishiguro's strongest and most committed novel. The book employs a wholehearted assault on fundamental Christianity, nationalism, and civil war, while raising sincere questions about the seemingly inverse relationship between objectivity and the building of community. The exceptionally creative ending was quite possibly my favorite of Ishiguro's thus far, and unlike in many of his other books, kept me sustained until the very end.

I will start recommending this as a starting point for readers looking to discover Ishiguro. Its pastoral aesthetic, accelerating plot, and committed themes are particularly convincing to readers of my Gen Z and millenial generation. This is Ishiguro at his most transparent, active, and sincere, and I anticipate this would have easily been five stars had I not encountered many of his tropes beforehand.

Focused, is the first word that comes to mind thinking about the story presented here. This book has a lot to say and it doesn't use many words to say it. Definitely one I will revisit. Highly recommended.

There were so many elements to like in this novel and i know i enjoyed it while reading it. But the scary thing, in thinking back a month after the fact is how little i remember of it. The irony is not lost on me.

Slow reading, but good.

I don't know how I always end up reading his books. They're all good, slow reading, and often leave me wondering what I missed. There always seems to be just something out of reach that I can't understand.

No sé cómo explicarlo, pero eso fue hermoso, profundo y extraño a la vez. La delicadeza y el tiempo que toma para desarrollar la revelación final, es un trabajo tan minucioso y oculto que, las páginas finales, llegaron tan inevitables y dolorosas que preferí no leerlo en un lugar público. Así de poderoso. Es lento (lo siento, pero para mí no descalifica este adjetivo en el arte, hay veces que suma mucho) y atmosférico; te lleva con paciencia por un camino insospechado. A pesar de que parece escueto y lacónico con sus descripciones, me vi a mi mismo aportando mucho a la imagen que el escritor apenas se encarga de perfilar con maestría. Hace rato no leía algo que me obsequiara la deliciosa tarea de imaginar más por deleite que por la inseguridad narrativa de la novela (que no es nada despreciable, es algo humano).

Me pareció genial sentirme inmerso también en la niebla que flotaba por el aire de aquel país legendario, obligado al olvido.

”What kind of god is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?”

This is my third Ishiguro novel, with The Remains of the Day being my first and favorite, and Never Let Me Go being my second and incredibly lackluster in my opinion. I went into this not really knowing which of the two polarizing opposites I'd land on, but aside from some really poignant and heartwrenching scenes, this landed squarely in the middle for me. I feel like there's really two separate ideas going on here, and I felt one of the stories was way more compelling/emotional than the other, which really impacted my overall enjoyment.

Spoilers follow.

The story starts out focusing on Axl and Beatrice, two elderly Britons living within a community they've been a part of for as long as they can remember. Unfortunately, their memories don't go back all that far for mysterious, unclear (in the beginning) reasons. Things that recently happened often go forgotten, and things long in the past may only occasionally be faintly remembered. Despite the persistent memory problems, the two decide that they really need to visit their son in a village several days away, and set out to see him. Along the way they meet up with Edwin, a boy persecuted by his village for superstitious reasons and Wistan, a Saxon warrior who rescues Edwin and takes him under his wing to train him as a warrior. The small group happens along Sir Gawain (King Arthur's nephew, for those keeping track), on a quest to slay the dragon Querig. Wistan also is there to slay Querig, at the behest of his Saxon king. Querig, as it turns out, is the cause of the widespread memory loss, and Gawain and Wistan find themselves at odds with each other over the slaying of the dragon.

The overall feeling of the book was melancholy and kind of dream-like. This wasn't an easy read by any means, and there's lots of symbolism, metaphors, and other literary elements to really chew through to get at what the book was trying to convey. I'm not even really sure I understand the significance of some portions, which is fine, I kind of like books that make me think. I will say that I was way more invested in the Axl/Beatrice story, as they struggled with their memory loss, their love for each other, and what is revealed to them about each other as it goes along than I was the Wistan/Gawain story where one wants to slay the dragon and the other wants to protect it. Theirs was a distracting story, and I got bored/impatient with a lot of it. The ending, though, was one heck of a payoff for the journey there. Incredibly emotional.

So I guess, 3.5 stars? Maybe? I'll round it up to 4, just to put it in the middle of my ratings of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, but it's a hard book to get into and not everyone wants that kind of work with their reading. Give it a shot if you've read other Ishiguro works, but I'd make it one of your last stops in his catalog.

Rating: 2.71 leaves out of 5Characters: 3/5 Cover:2/5Story: 2.85/5Writing: 3/5Genre: Fantasy/Magical Realism/Historical FictionType: AudiobookWorth?: EhhHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedThe book started out pretty strong for me and I was glad to have a theory that was right towards the beginning. I was confused about 50% of the time which made the book really dragged. I was listening at 2.65x speed because I just wanted it to be over and done with. I think it hit the 50% and it really went down hill. The thing that got me to round up to a 3 instead of down to the 2 was the old couple and the ending. I tried really hard not to cry while listening to it since I was at work. XD

This was a very interesting book. The language and the kind of static archaic dialogue takes some getting used to. But on the whole it's a good “knight” story, about the classic themes like honour and power.

But to say that it stands out a lot? Just like the main characters, I'm left with a fog of forgetfulness.

It feels like nothing really happens and it's slow paced, but it's just interesting enough not to stop reading, and everything of value happens in the last couple chapters, but at least there is a lesson about love and memories as a double edged sword and that sometimes it is better to forget the past in order to move forward.

3.5- Felt very Fellowship of the Ring inspired. I enjoyed the journey and overall message.

It's not perfect. I find I cannot say “wow” and give it 5 stars. Yet, my tears flow and my heart aches.

“That's true, good lady, but then we boatmen have seen so many over the years it doesn't take us long to see beyond deceptions. Besides, when travellers speak of their most cherished memories, it's impossible for them to disguise the truth. A couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more. Abiding love that has endured the years—that we see only rarely. When we do, we're only too glad to ferry the couple together. Good lady, I've already said more than I should.”


Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, live in post-Roman Britain. They – like everyone – are suffering from some strange memory loss that prevents them from recalling large parts of their lives:

“Now I think of it, Axl, there may be something in what you're always saying. It's queer the way the world's forgetting people and things from only yesterday and the day before that. [...] Like a sickness come over us all.”

Sometimes, though, either Axl or Beatrice do remember things from their past; just like one morning Axl remembers their son who has moved to a village not too far from their home. Not having seen him for many years, they decide to visit him. The entire book is basically about their journey and the people they meet.


This book is definitely not for the casual reader – you always have to read closely and attentively or you will miss a lot of small details that are not always of great relevance but which help form the “big picture”, e. g. we learn early on that Beatrice and Axl aren't allowed to own and use a candle at their home. When they're talking about a cloak much later on, we learn said cloak was one they “later we lost in that fire”.

Furthermore, the entire book can be read in a number of ways – as a somewhat simple story of the arduous journey of our elderly couple, or maybe that journey itself isn't one of physical hardship but an allegory for their life together and the challenges they encountered.

Even individual encounters and deeds during the journey can often be interpreted in many ways. The more abstract interpretation is all the more plausible as the writing style is very formal, sometimes excessively so:

“Master Ivor told us of it, and we thought it poor news to succeed your brave intervention.”

Nobody – at least today – talks like that. While this is, undoubtedly, yet another means to achieve a feeling of estrangement, it is too much for me.

In addition to this strange formality, the narrator often doesn't directly describe the landscape but how it could or would have been at the time narrated:

“There would have been elms and willows near the water, as well as dense woodland, which in those days would have stirred a sense of foreboding.”

This adds again to the feeling of estrangement from the literal story itself and makes it harder for me to actually enjoy the story. It distances the reader from the story and while that might be the right way if you only care about your art and not your reader, I didn't like that.

I always felt like I was being led by the nose somewhere and tried to anticipate it. I felt like being manipulated to be “educated” and I didn't enjoy it.


The weird forgetfulness everyone is afflicted by makes for very strange dialogue like this one:

““What's this you're saying, princess? Was I ever the one to stop us journeying to our son's village?” “But surely you were, Axl. Surely you were.” “When did I speak against such a journey, princess?” “I always thought you did, husband. But oh, Axl, I don't remember clearly now you question it. And why do we stand out here, fine day though it is?”“

Uh, yes, and why are you tormenting us with repeating dialogues like that all the time?! It's really truly annoying to have to keep reading stuff like that.

On the other hand, it's the most important narrative feature of this book so I do understand the general need to make sure we fully understand it and its implications. Even more so since both Beatrice and Axl do remember additional fragments of memories whenever they talk in length about any given topic. Quite a bit of information is given in that indirect way.

Especially information that has been hidden before – because every character in this entire book is hiding things – some major, some minor – from everyone else. Sometimes with good reason, sometimes we simply don't know and have to find our own answer.

Everything in this book is taxing like that, even down to the names of our heroes:

Beatrice literally means “she who makes happy” - and she is Axl's one and only. The only person for whom he really cares and she makes him happy.

Axl means “father of peace” (or “father is peace”) and even that is quite fitting as we will learn late in the book.


“The abbot will insist we carry on as always. Others of our view will say it's time to stop. That no forgiveness awaits us at the end of this path. That we must uncover what's been hidden and face the past. But those voices, I fear, remain few and will not carry the day.”

While I was reading “Giant”, I constantly felt like the author was wagging his finger at me and lecturing me. Literature, to me, though, is not about lecturing. I want “my” books to entertain me, to make me think and question things but not by moralising, lecturing, finger-wagging but unobtrusively.

Maybe that's too near to “edutainment” (which I have no qualm with) for some but that's just the way I feel. I don't like reading the old classics (Schiller, Goethe, etc.) either anymore – they're just too far from my life and times.

“Giant” does read like such a classic or, possibly, a play:

“Should I fall before I pass to you my skills, promise me you'll tend well this hatred in your heart. And should it ever flicker or threaten to die, shield it with care till the flame takes hold again. Will you promise me this, Master Edwin?”


At least a few amusing passages found their way into this book (possibly by accident!):

““Let's come away, child,” Axl said. “This is no sight for you or your brothers. But what is it made this poor ogre so sick? Can it be your goat was diseased?” “Not diseased, sir, poisoned! We'd been feeding it more than a full week just the way Bronwen taught us. Six times each day with the leaves.””


Ultimately, though, “The Buried Giant” is lost on me due to its excessively allegorical nature and narrative complexity – if a book is so taxing, I can hardly enjoy reading it anymore, it's simply too much for me. Maybe it's Ishiguro handing us all the essential information to make up our own mind and come to our own conclusions and it's just me.

I didn't give up on this book but I'm giving up on its author for good.

This is the third Ishiguro novel I've read, the other two being The Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go, and I am struck by how different their subjects are.

I did enjoy this book as well, though I thought it was a little drawn out and the cryptic qualities of some of the characters' intentions and the reveal of the world didn't always work.

I did love the prose when it was very specific such as in some of the dueling scenes. Ishiguro is great at dealing with the dignity of his characters and those scenes really brought that to light here.

I was wondering what I'd get when I noticed what appeared to be fantasy from [a:Kazuo Ishiguro 4280 Kazuo Ishiguro https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1424906625p2/4280.jpg] on the library shelf. [b:The Buried Giant 22522805 The Buried Giant Kazuo Ishiguro https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451444392s/22522805.jpg 41115424] proves to be remarkably Kazuo. In this fictional Albion with ongoing Anglo-Saxon conflict, he threads an underlying question of what it means to be British, that to me feels like the kind of interrogation you can only really have when you grow up a non-native Brit. It's startling, at least to me, to see the landscapes of England shifted to fantasy and yet described so accurately (or what I imagine to be accurately). He gets the spirit of the place.Setting aside, the novel is an odd, timeskipping piece. We're kept in the dark about most of the plot, since the characters don't really know what's going on half the time anyway. It's interesting to meet characters who don't remember their own lives, but I wouldn't say the experience is particularly fun. The jumps in perspective and time, even mid paragraph, are disorienting. Again, that's sort of the point, I suppose, but it's not easy to read. Ishiguro gets an amazing sense of tone and atmosphere here; it's certainly “literary” or at least feels that way. Yet impressive prose doesn't make it entirely enjoyable, so come into this with appropriate expectations...

I've been reading fantasy books for decades. And never have I read a fantasy book that was used as such an allegory for the psychological trauma inflicted on a population from war and infidelity. A quiet, slow novel where everything is a little more than it seems. It is filled with the same mastery of nuance and innuendo that Ishiguro is known for. Brilliant. Like many fantasy novels there is magic and dragons and ancient armies. But unlike most of them, the epic battles are meditative and within each of the characters in their own small way. The best book I read last year was “The Remains of the Day”. I need to continue on this trend, and read more and more of Ishiguro's work.

While I loved The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, I cannot think of a single good thing to say about The Buried Giant, which makes me even more bitter that Ishiguro won the Nobel that Murakami has still not gotten.

See my full review at The Emerald City Book Review. I have to admit that I had a difficult time puzzling out what was metaphor, what was delusion, and what was reality, and that this made me uncomfortable. There were some indications that what certain characters described as otherworldly creatures or phenomena (e.g. ogres) had a more mundane explanation, and that the pre-conceptions of the characters determined the world they perceived. This is an interesting philosophical point, but disorienting when applied to a story, in which generally the author is performing the magic trick of making us believe in something that doesn't exist. It matters not whether that something is a dragon or a duchess or a dachshund; within the world of a story it must gain being and presence, or why bother with it?

This dis-orientation was inconsistent. There were times when it was very hard to imagine an alternative explanation for what the characters were describing, other than that they were all completely insane. And yet, if that were the case, what could be gained from entering into their fractured minds? Are we meant to reflect on our own self-delusional versions of an impenetrable reality? That's a stage on everyone's quest, but to me it cannot be the end. I believe in meaning and wholeness, and if that betrays my lack of sophistication as a reader and human being, but so be it. I'm not interested in subversion for its own sake, only when it helps to break us through to a higher level of understanding.

Though I enjoyed parts of the journey, and grew to care for some of the characters, in the end I was left frustrated and dissatisfied. Perhaps a reread will enlighten me further as to what Ishiguro might have been trying to say, but right now I'm not at all sure.

It made me very sleepy through the middle bits.

Neil Gaiman's review of this book said: ““The Buried Giant” is an exceptional novel, and I suspect my inability to fall in love with it, much as I wanted to, came from my conviction that there was an allegory waiting like an ogre in the mist...“

I can think of no better review than those comments.

This was the first time I've read Ishiguro, and I was impressed with the way a surface simplicity belied a profoundly deep and moving story and meditation on memory and the embodied place of memory in our personal and collective lives. Ishiguro creates an evocative and believable landscape and i could fairly see the mist on the page - an Avalon for today: not romanticised, yet not a hard-nosed de-mystified historical place, either. Something in-between with enough magic to bring the reader in and allow the reader to play a role in the narrative and plot development. He has a beautiful way with language and how language is the key to human relationships. Powerful reading, and one i look forward to returning to in future.

A very interesting book, indeed. This is the third novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that I've read and I can say that he is a 4 star author. He finds a way to speak in different voices about very different circumstances, while continuing to explore certain themes. Although each of the three books I've read (“[b:The Remains of the Day 28921 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327128714s/28921.jpg 3333111]” and “[b:Never Let Me Go 6334 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353048590s/6334.jpg 1499998]”) are about memory and wistfulness, there is much more to be found. One theme that Mr. Ishiguro explores again in this novel is being an outsider, which is an autobiographical theme (he was born in Japan, but grew up in England). We follow the story through the eyes of Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple that isn't allowed to use a candle in their room at night. As we progress through the story, we learn why that may be the case; perhaps the village remembered Axl's failed role in brokering peace between the Saxons and Britons at some level? Wistan, Edwin, and Gawain are all warriors who are now on their own, protecting or searching without the aid of other compatriots. Even the dragon is an outsider, although Merlin's enchantment gives her the power to prevent war from breaking out betwen the Saxons and Britons. The boatman is always alone, ferrying people whose time on Earth has drawn to a close. All of these people are somewhat disconnected from others, although each of them can be warm and gentle. I really liked that the story comes through several voices, not just Axl and Beatrice. In fact, I enjoyed hearing from Gawain, and would have liked to hear from him just a bit more. While the polite, courtly cadence of the characters in “The Buried Giant” are different from those of his other novels, they seem suited to this post-Arthurian world, in which memories are obscured by the dragon's mist. It is not only the elderly that experience this mist; it is something that all ages encounter. Could this mist be an allegory to the technology mist so many of us live in in which we must check our cell phones constantly and pacify ourselves with vines and Youtube videos as opposed to engaging in conversation with the people across the table from us? Or, if you're not attuned to engaging in war with other tribes, are you enshrouded by mist?Most touching was the ending of the novel, at least in my opinion. I sort of expected the couple to end as they did, separated by the boatman.So, why did I only give “The Buried Giant” 3 stars? Because it's an entertaining novel and, I think, appropriately paced, although some readers expected a much faster, “Game of Thrones” pace. This world covered by the dragon's mist doesn't move quickly and all isn't supposed to be clear.

3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

Saxons and Britons live peacefully side by side. Axl and Beatrice, a pair of aged Britons, decide to visit their son. Their progress, stymied by vague and unreliable memory, is slow, but as they travel, they slowly uncover the reason behind both peace and memory loss.

I'd not read Kazuo Ishiguro before, but had heard quite a lot about this book, and it seemed a good place to start. I found it not to be quite what I had expected.

On the side of content, the concept is strong - a mist pervades the country, making thought and recollection uncertain. Axl and Beatrice fight to recover tiny scraps of memory - often finding that what they do recall is troubling. Their journey toward truth is compelling and very well conceived.

I was surprised, on the other hand, to find Ishiguro's prose to be substantially less appealing. It's simple, but also verges on dull. He uses a trick of repetition, which to some extent reinforces the characters' weak memories. It also got on my nerves - when a knight is reciting the same simple story for the fourth time, I feel I've gotten the point, yet the repetitions happens (ironically) over and over. The book was quick easy to read, but the prose was so plain (and sometimes awkward), that I found I just wasn't interested. Verbal tics, such as Axl constantly calling Beatrice “my princess” didn't help. It felt as if Ishiguro had set up his concept and characters well in the first ten pages, and kept tracing those same lines for the next three hundred.

I'd like to have seen the story as a hyper-intelligent, multi-leveled parable about truth, memory, peace, justice, etc., but in fact I didn't. It read as just what it seems to be - a light fantasy about magical memory loss. There's nothing wrong with that, except that the story constantly seemed to promise more, and didn't deliver. The only metaphor that felt close to fulfillment involved a boatman, and even that felt underdeveloped.

All in all, a pleasant but under-performing fantasy that dreams big but doesn't attempt very much. Based on the prose, I also don't feel drawn to try Ishiguro's other, more popular books.

I am calling it. I listened to half. Got bored. Waiting a week and started again and listened to another half hour and just didn't care. Too much repetition. The story is about lack of memory and there are intentional holes in the story.