Beatrice and Axl are two elderly Britons who want to see their son before they are too old. Their search for him causes to discover much about themselves, their country and to meet other people, whose lives and purposes entwine with their own.

They meet the aged Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur. He is a wonderfully polite, yet pugilistic character, swapping between the two from one sentence to the next. I found some of the conversations between him, Axl and Beatrice where they are all talking at cross purposes and none of them pay attention to the others, especially funny. I loved the supportive relationship between Axl and Beatrice.

This book certainly made me think. There is more than one Buried Giant, but you need to look out for them and work out what they mean! It is written in a style that could almost be an oral storyteller recounting a tale, which fits in well with the period. There are occasions where the narrator addresses the audience, but it doesn’t occur too often, otherwise it would break the flow of the story. I think this was Ishiguro handled this element extremely well.