The Buried Giant: Why the Fantastic Isn’t Always Important in Fantasy

by Mary Kate Costigan

In his first novel in ten years, Booker Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro enters a realm he has never entered before: fantasy. The Buried Giant is not a traditional fantasy book, though. Set a generation after the reign of mythical King Arthur, it has ogres, knights, and dragons. Yet while these things are crucial to the story’s plot, they are not the heart of the story. The Buried Giant is instead a tale of memory, love, and human connection that just so happens to involve a bloodthirsty sprite or two.

At the center of the novel are Axl and Beatrice, and elde...