By Kazuo Ishiguoro
I got this book in an Oxfam in September, 2023. I read half of it that day in an ice-cream shop, and I finished the rest over two commutes to work the next week.
It’s a haunting book - it has an image of the Dark Ages in England which I’ve never encountered before. The villages, the uncertainty, the constant struggle to survive mixed with the Magic pervading the entire book, and the key relationship of the old married couple of Axl and Beatrice at the centre of it all - it enchanted me.
The part at the end particularly, with Beatrice going with the boatman and Axl’s internal struggles, against the forthcoming Saxon conquest, driving the Britons out after Querig’s fog of forgetfulness was lifted, was deeply disconsolate and disconcerting. I loved it.