Memoirs of A Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada is a novel told in three parts, each part the story of a member of three generations of polar bears. The matriarch of the family opens the book. I was captivated by view of her life, which begins in the circus. Her description of learning to walk on her hind legs and the mystery of the human world is compelling. She leaves the circus to follow her real calling - being a writer. She’s  a tough character, who follows her whims and retains her sense of self and all her ursine nature while living a very human life as a celebrated writer. This is surreal, but as I read I found it more and more believable. Tawada is able to make you believe even while you are disconcerted by the idea of the matriarch being simultaneously bear and human - it is all too possible. The next part tells the story of her daughter, Tosca, who is a performer in a circus in East Germany. In this story, a charged affair takes place in the mystical dreams of Tosca and her trainer. The third part tells the story of the grandson, Knut, and his life in the Berlin zoo. This could easily be a farcical novel, but Tawada’s ability to make you believe in the lives of the polar bears, her clever writing in creating different scenarios for telling memoir, and some wry, subtle commentary about Eastern European politics, social structures and class struggle all add to the intrigue of these three lives linked by fame and circumstance.  {Reviewed by STELLA}