Books by Kazuo Ishiguro
Born: 1955Kazuo Ishiguro Biography & Notes
Kazuo Ishiguro (born November 8, 1954) is a British author who was born in Nagasaki, Japan. He immigrated with his parents to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Masters from the University of East Anglia in 1980. He now lives in London.
He won the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for his novel An Artist of the Floating World, and he won the Booker Prize in 1989 for his novel, The Remains of the Day.
His other novels include A Pale View of Hills, The Unconsoled, and When We Were Orphans.
The literary characteristics of Ishiguro's work are almost unique in the accepted canon of English literature and technique. This is largely due to the mixed chronology of the plot, to the extreme subjectivity of the narration, and to the delicate and historically-accurate descriptions that accompany the narration. These characteristics are radically disconnected from conventional literary wisdom, which suggests that brief descriptions, linear chronology and objective narration characterises the most successful English writing.
Kazuo Ishiguro's novels are, by definition, historical works. His novel The Remains of the Day takes place within a large country home of an aristocratic lord, during the period immediately after the First World War and to the final period before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The quality of the research is superlative; not only are dates and events recorded accurately, but the psychological atmosphere is represented with skill rarely approached in historical fiction. Another novel An Artist of the Floating World is set in Nagasaki, Japan, during the post-war period of reconstruction, immediately after the detonation of an atomic bomb had effected considerable damage. This time the plot is partly autobiographical and the historical details are partly drawn from direct experience - Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954, slightly later than the exact period he covers in the novel.
The novels are written in first person perspective, and Ishiguro permits his choice of narrator to carry all the bias common to human beings. Often his characters refuse to face realities to which the reader is made aware by the behaviour if not the thoughts of the individual character. For example, in The Remains of the Day, Stephens - a butler - struggles to reconcile himself between the call of duty, and to the allure of romance. In the process of writing, Ishiguro makes full use of real historical people on the stage of his narration. Thus in The Remains of the Day Lord Darlington appears as the hero's employer, but in a historical sense, he was an actual figure of prominence in England prior to the war, as were many of the dignitaries entertained in The Remains of the Day.
His novels end with a paradox. The issues his characters confront are buried in the past, and the problems those issues have caused cannot be resolved. Thus Ishiguro ends many of his novels with an atmosphere of depressing resignation, whereby the characters accept what has happened, and who they have become, and find in that realisation a relief from mental anguish.
He won the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for his novel An Artist of the Floating World, and he won the Booker Prize in 1989 for his novel, The Remains of the Day.
His other novels include A Pale View of Hills, The Unconsoled, and When We Were Orphans.
The literary characteristics of Ishiguro's work are almost unique in the accepted canon of English literature and technique. This is largely due to the mixed chronology of the plot, to the extreme subjectivity of the narration, and to the delicate and historically-accurate descriptions that accompany the narration. These characteristics are radically disconnected from conventional literary wisdom, which suggests that brief descriptions, linear chronology and objective narration characterises the most successful English writing.
Kazuo Ishiguro's novels are, by definition, historical works. His novel The Remains of the Day takes place within a large country home of an aristocratic lord, during the period immediately after the First World War and to the final period before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. The quality of the research is superlative; not only are dates and events recorded accurately, but the psychological atmosphere is represented with skill rarely approached in historical fiction. Another novel An Artist of the Floating World is set in Nagasaki, Japan, during the post-war period of reconstruction, immediately after the detonation of an atomic bomb had effected considerable damage. This time the plot is partly autobiographical and the historical details are partly drawn from direct experience - Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954, slightly later than the exact period he covers in the novel.
The novels are written in first person perspective, and Ishiguro permits his choice of narrator to carry all the bias common to human beings. Often his characters refuse to face realities to which the reader is made aware by the behaviour if not the thoughts of the individual character. For example, in The Remains of the Day, Stephens - a butler - struggles to reconcile himself between the call of duty, and to the allure of romance. In the process of writing, Ishiguro makes full use of real historical people on the stage of his narration. Thus in The Remains of the Day Lord Darlington appears as the hero's employer, but in a historical sense, he was an actual figure of prominence in England prior to the war, as were many of the dignitaries entertained in The Remains of the Day.
His novels end with a paradox. The issues his characters confront are buried in the past, and the problems those issues have caused cannot be resolved. Thus Ishiguro ends many of his novels with an atmosphere of depressing resignation, whereby the characters accept what has happened, and who they have become, and find in that realisation a relief from mental anguish.
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An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1986)
Masuji Ono was once a painter of the Ukiyo, the traditional pleasure-seeking "floating world" of geishas, cherry blossoms, and teahouses. But he also worked as an enthusiastic propagandist, creating posters in support of the imperialist Japanese government during World War II--a war in which his wife and son were killed. Now, defeated and humiliated, Japan is becoming increasingly Westernized and alien, and Masuji finds himself an outcast, even to his grown daughters, who have no respect for him. When one of them becomes engaged and her fiancé's family seeks information about the Ono family background, Masuji's unfortunate past as a cog in the wheel that led his country to disaster is inescapable. The pathos of Masuji's situation (much like that of the English butler in Ishiguro's later novel THE REMAINS OF THE DAY) leads to questions about the motives of art and the reach of personal responsibility. Kazuo Ishiguro won the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD, his second novel.
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Aupres De Moi Toujours by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2008) |
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Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2008) |
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Damals in Nagasaki by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2002) |
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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2005)
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is. Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date. From the Hardcover edition. |
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Nocturnes Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2009)
As in his masterful THE UNCONSOLED, Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro's NOCTURNES: FIVE STORIES OF MUSIC AND NIGHTFALL uses music both as a subject, and as a metaphor for the things that are rarest and dearest in our lives: love, art, and other ethereal issues. In the opening story, a Polish guitarist in Venice is hired by a famous old crooner to serenade his wife from a gondola in an attempt to save their marriage--the results are not exactly what the guitarist or husband expects. Later, in another story, a saxophone player gets plastic surgery to help his career, and while waiting to recovery in a hotel, he meets the crooner's wife (now divorced), herself wrapped in surgical gauze. From under their bandages, the two discuss issues of love and failure. Ishiguro's writing style has genetic similarities to classical music in the brilliant but subtle ways themes and variations resonate and linger in the reader's mind. He also has a love for the comic and absurd--a woman in one story is convinced that she is a cello virtuoso though she cannot play the instrument--though these absurdities are delivered in the same measured elegant prose he uses for his tragedies. NOCTURNES is a beautiful book, full of heartache, brought off with aplomb by one of our most brilliant literary performers.
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A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1990)
The story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. In a story where past and present confuse, she relives scenes of Japan's devastation in the wake of World War II.
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Quand Nous Etions Orphelins by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2002)
In Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, Christopher Banks is an English boy growing up in Shanghai. His parents disappear and are eventually presumed dead, and Christopher is raised in England by an aunt. As an adult, he becomes a prominent detective who returns to Shanghai to try to find out what happened to his family. The fateful year of his return is 1937, when the Japanese massacred 250,000 Chinese, and things become perilous for Banks as he searches through his parents in what has now become a war zone. In the end, he discovers a fact about his past that threatens his entire way of life. As a background to his obsession is his near-romance with a society woman named Sarah, as well as the loss of his friendship with his boyhood playmate, Akira. A New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000. This is a French-language version of the text.
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Quando Eravamo Orfani by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2002)
In Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, Christopher Banks is an English boy growing up in Shanghai. His parents disappear and are eventually presumed dead, and Christopher is raised in England by an aunt. As an adult, he becomes a prominent detective who returns to Shanghai to try to find out what happened to his family. The fateful year of his return is 1937, when the Japanese massacred 250,000 Chinese, and things become perilous for Banks as he searches through his parents in what has now become a war zone. In the end, he discovers a fact about his past that threatens his entire way of life. As a background to his obsession is his near-romance with a society woman named Sarah, as well as the loss of his friendship with his boyhood playmate, Akira. A New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000. This is an Italian-language version of the text.
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Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2008) |
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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1993)
A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book.
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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro ( )
It is 1956. Stevens, the ageing butler of Dalington Hall, has just embarked on a motoring trip through the west of England that will become a journey deep into his past. As he winds his way through the English countryside, from the medieval charm of Salisbury, through Dorset and Devon and on to Cornwall, Stevens reflects on a life in which professionalism and service have been the guiding principles, and personal relations have been kept in their proper place. Reaching his destination, past and present meet in a profoundly moving moment of self-awareness, acknowledged but denied in the same instant.
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The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1997)
The Unconsoled is at once a gripping psychological mystery, a wicked satire of the cult of art, and a poignant character study of a man whose public life has accelerated beyond his control. The setting is a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past. In The Unconsoled Ishiguro creates a work that is itself a virtuoso performance, strange, haunting, and resonant with humanity and wit."A work of great interest and originality.... Ishiguro has mapped out an aesthetic territory that is all his own...frankly fantastic [and] fiercer and funnier than before."--The New Yorker
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When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 2001)
From the Booker Prize-winning, bestselling author of Remains of the Day comes this stunning work of soaring imagination.
Born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age of nine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, more than twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents' alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own, painful past, only to find that war is ravaging Shanghai beyond recognition-and that his own recollections are proving as difficult to trust as the people around him. Masterful, suspenseful and psychologically acute, When We Were Orphans offers a profound meditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibility of avenging one’s past. |
