--- product_id: 22190476 title: "The Buried Giant (Vintage International)" price: "¥3510" currency: JPY in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/22190476-the-buried-giant-vintage-international store_origin: JP region: Japan --- # The Buried Giant (Vintage International) **Price:** ¥3510 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Buried Giant (Vintage International) - **How much does it cost?** ¥3510 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/22190476-the-buried-giant-vintage-international) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description 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. Review: The Best Kind of Literary Fantasy - Is it better to remember—or to forget? Is memory a treasure that gives our lives meaning and shapes our identities—or a curse that keeps us from feeling love and acceptance in the present? The Buried Giant is an ideal example of what rich, meaningful, challenging literary fantasy can do. It's reminiscent of Ishiguro's own work (Never Let Me Go similarly exemplifies the potential of literary science fiction) but also of the philosophical, allegorical, character-driven fantasy of Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, and Margo Lanagan (whose amazing Tender Morsels is also a must-read), among others. Imagine Wolfe's Wizard Knight series with its Arthurian setting and unpredictability but with elderly protagonists, a smaller cast, and a focus on memory (and how it can provide meaning and also create pain—for individuals and nations) and you'll have a good picture of what to expect from The Buried Giant. Literal events are comprehensible with some effort (despite shifting points of view and breaks in chronology as characters start stories and only later explain the events leading up to them), but the novel leaves open profound questions about love, war, violence, and memory. It's also consistently beautiful and engaging at the sentence level—unlike in much generic fantasy (which sometimes presents elaborate worlds and plots but falls flat in emotion, dialogue, and characterization), characters each speak and act in completely distinct ways, and there is wit and meaningful, often moving emotions in the smallest incidents. The novel is more about its characters and themes than its plot, and it isn't dependent on lots of things happening, but by the end, the lives of the characters, and the shape of their world, are indeed fundamentally changed. Unfortunately, books like this often disappoint the two groups of readers who give them a chance: readers of realistic literary fiction, who are turned off that it's fantasy, which they foolishly see as subliterary (even though most of the history of literature before the development of realism actually consists of what we'd now consider fantasy, and the kind of primarily commercial fantasy thought to define the genre is merely an invention of the last few decades), and readers of generic/commercial fantasy, whose conventional expectations (a standard quest, action, completely clear storytelling, an enormous amount of world-building, etc.) will be frustrated by the novel's literary style and focus on character and theme. But for those who can appreciate literary fantasy (my own favorite form of literature), it will be magical—the kind of book to read and reread and give to others in the hopes they will feel the same. Review: Thought-provoking read. - This is a very difficult book to review. Superficially it is a Fantasy set in Britain shortly after the death of King Arthur. But actually it is a Myth, Quest, Allegory, Fairy Story and Morality Tale, about a magical world peopled with knights, monks, dragons, ogres and pixies (more about those later). When Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, set out on a journey to find their son, the land of Britain is shrouded in a mist which causes the population to forget or only half-remember the events of the past. Some wish to remember and others to forget. Ishiguro poses the pertinent questions "Is it better to recall the Past, or to bury the Past in collective amnesia? Should we allow the Buried Giant to sleep or should we wake him?" These are conundrums not particular to the Dark Ages, but remain very relevant in the 21st Century. The soldier Wistan asks "What kind of God is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?" Gawain replies "Yet it's long past and the bones lie sheltered beneath a pleasant green carpet." There are many gems such as these in the book, which is why I took much longer than my usual 2 or 3 days to read this book. I often returned to a passage or a conversation to re-read it. There were sections in the story I found frustrating, especially the river scene of the old woman in the boat with pixies swarming over her. I thought this part irrelevant. (I had exactly the same reaction to the Little People in Murakami's 1Q84.) The story lost direction in the middle when I wanted to follow the travels of Axl and Beatrice, but the tale deviated. However I found the ending of the story moving and poignant. The Medieval dialogue is beautifully written, the descriptive prose evokes the landscape of the period and the life of the inhabitants. If you wish to read an intelligent, convoluted, deeply meaningful tale, which explores the themes of memory, deception, loneliness, love and loss, you will enjoy this book. However it is not light reading, and probably deserves several re-reads. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #22,225 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #49 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books) #51 in Arthurian Fantasy (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.0 out of 5 stars 13,820 Reviews | ## Images ![The Buried Giant (Vintage International) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81gsnUA4ofL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Best Kind of Literary Fantasy *by R***7 on January 9, 2018* Is it better to remember—or to forget? Is memory a treasure that gives our lives meaning and shapes our identities—or a curse that keeps us from feeling love and acceptance in the present? The Buried Giant is an ideal example of what rich, meaningful, challenging literary fantasy can do. It's reminiscent of Ishiguro's own work (Never Let Me Go similarly exemplifies the potential of literary science fiction) but also of the philosophical, allegorical, character-driven fantasy of Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, and Margo Lanagan (whose amazing Tender Morsels is also a must-read), among others. Imagine Wolfe's Wizard Knight series with its Arthurian setting and unpredictability but with elderly protagonists, a smaller cast, and a focus on memory (and how it can provide meaning and also create pain—for individuals and nations) and you'll have a good picture of what to expect from The Buried Giant. Literal events are comprehensible with some effort (despite shifting points of view and breaks in chronology as characters start stories and only later explain the events leading up to them), but the novel leaves open profound questions about love, war, violence, and memory. It's also consistently beautiful and engaging at the sentence level—unlike in much generic fantasy (which sometimes presents elaborate worlds and plots but falls flat in emotion, dialogue, and characterization), characters each speak and act in completely distinct ways, and there is wit and meaningful, often moving emotions in the smallest incidents. The novel is more about its characters and themes than its plot, and it isn't dependent on lots of things happening, but by the end, the lives of the characters, and the shape of their world, are indeed fundamentally changed. Unfortunately, books like this often disappoint the two groups of readers who give them a chance: readers of realistic literary fiction, who are turned off that it's fantasy, which they foolishly see as subliterary (even though most of the history of literature before the development of realism actually consists of what we'd now consider fantasy, and the kind of primarily commercial fantasy thought to define the genre is merely an invention of the last few decades), and readers of generic/commercial fantasy, whose conventional expectations (a standard quest, action, completely clear storytelling, an enormous amount of world-building, etc.) will be frustrated by the novel's literary style and focus on character and theme. But for those who can appreciate literary fantasy (my own favorite form of literature), it will be magical—the kind of book to read and reread and give to others in the hopes they will feel the same. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thought-provoking read. *by S***R on May 18, 2015* This is a very difficult book to review. Superficially it is a Fantasy set in Britain shortly after the death of King Arthur. But actually it is a Myth, Quest, Allegory, Fairy Story and Morality Tale, about a magical world peopled with knights, monks, dragons, ogres and pixies (more about those later). When Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, set out on a journey to find their son, the land of Britain is shrouded in a mist which causes the population to forget or only half-remember the events of the past. Some wish to remember and others to forget. Ishiguro poses the pertinent questions "Is it better to recall the Past, or to bury the Past in collective amnesia? Should we allow the Buried Giant to sleep or should we wake him?" These are conundrums not particular to the Dark Ages, but remain very relevant in the 21st Century. The soldier Wistan asks "What kind of God is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?" Gawain replies "Yet it's long past and the bones lie sheltered beneath a pleasant green carpet." There are many gems such as these in the book, which is why I took much longer than my usual 2 or 3 days to read this book. I often returned to a passage or a conversation to re-read it. There were sections in the story I found frustrating, especially the river scene of the old woman in the boat with pixies swarming over her. I thought this part irrelevant. (I had exactly the same reaction to the Little People in Murakami's 1Q84.) The story lost direction in the middle when I wanted to follow the travels of Axl and Beatrice, but the tale deviated. However I found the ending of the story moving and poignant. The Medieval dialogue is beautifully written, the descriptive prose evokes the landscape of the period and the life of the inhabitants. If you wish to read an intelligent, convoluted, deeply meaningful tale, which explores the themes of memory, deception, loneliness, love and loss, you will enjoy this book. However it is not light reading, and probably deserves several re-reads. ### ⭐⭐⭐ literary style (as always) were excellent in this novel *by G***S on May 16, 2015* So here is a conundrum for me. I am a big Ishiguro fan. The characters, setting, literary style (as always) were excellent in this novel. The plot...not so much. It was almost embarrassingly hackneyed. It's hard to write a review taking issue with a plot line without including spoilers, but as I hope my reviews will inspire readers one way or the other BEFORE reading the book, I will leave out the spoilers and do a less thorough critique of the story. But let's start with the positive aspects of this book. First and foremost I must comment on the literary structure of the book. I confess, when I mentioned to my brother, Ron, that I was reading this book and he told me he, in fact, was reading it as well, at the same time, his first words to me were, I love Ishiguro's sentence structure. So, perhaps he planted the idea, but I couldn't agree more. Ishiguro paints such lovely images with his flowing prose, shifting emotion, perspective, imagery so that each sentence is a joy. I often speak in my reviews, about that moment when I read a sentence and then sit back and roll it around in my brain for a while, just enjoying how the concept was expressed...how it made me feel...what it made me see. This book was rife with such sentences and for that reason reading it was a very enjoyable experience. There were six main characters (if you count Horace, the horse), all superbly developed and believable. Having just experienced the birthday sung about so many years ago with dread by the Beatles, I appreciated the elderly characters, the aspects of their personalities and physical foibles particular to advanced er...maturity. But all the characters were consistent, beautifully drawn, each an important member of the ensemble, each so sympathetic the reader had great concern when they were in jeopardy and joy when they were triumphant. The book takes place circa the Middle Ages and has a Lord of the Rings historical fictional feel, including many of the myths of the time woven into our collective perceptions of the era...the magic of Merlin...the legends of Arthur and his knights. It was fun living in those simpler, more genteel and brutal at the same time...era for a while. The plot. Well, sorry...kinda stupid. I'm sure a haughty professor of English could come up with many meanings and references and tie together the plot as an allegory of this or that. But wandering around in the wilderness with the characters, I pretty much knew where they were going...what was going to happen...how it was going to end. It was an oft told tale I I have heard it many times before. I tired of the plot early on...but kept reading for reasons mentioned above. All in all, The Buried Giant was an enjoyable literary experience and a worthwhile diversion. On to the next book, hoping for more unexpected twists and turns. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.jp/products/22190476-the-buried-giant-vintage-international](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/22190476-the-buried-giant-vintage-international) --- *Product available on Desertcart Japan* *Store origin: JP* *Last updated: 2026-07-08*