‘A dream of a book: a beguiling comedy of manners that evolves almost magically into a profound and heart-rending study of personality, class and
culture.’ (New York Times Book Review)
In 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England- a past that takes in aspects of fascism, two World Wars and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper. The novel has been critically acclaimed for its subtle and well-mannered narrative that provides a visual treat to the reader.
In his first two novels, Mr. Ishiguro evoked a Japan struggling to rebuild and come to terms with a tarnished past. In ”The Remains of the Day,” he turns his eye on another myth-shrouded society, that of Britain in the last days of empire. Where some write novels that explore the joy of life, Ishiguro explores instead those hollow places in our hearts that we all try to ignore. Where some build stories upon human strengths, he carves characters from their flaws.
An exemplary interview of Kazuo Ishiguro by Susannah Hunnewell.
Paris Review interview
“Poignant, subtly plotted and with the perfect unreliable narrator, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about a repressed servant deserved to rise above the clamour surrounding the shortlist in the year of his Booker triumph.”
Book review by The Guardian
By Kazuo Ishiguro
