Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro (born 8 November 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan) is a British writer of Japanese descent, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. He moved to the United Kingdom with his family in 1960. He studied English and philosophy at the University of Kent, and later creative writing at the University of East Anglia. His works, known for their subtle style, explore themes of memory, loss, identity and transience.

His first novel, The Pale Face of the Hill (1982), is the story of a Japanese widow and her memories of post-war Nagasaki. He followed it with The Artist of the Vanished World (1986), set in Japan, which explores the themes of art and trauma. He achieved international fame with his novel The Remains of the Day (1989), about an English butler and missed opportunities, which won the Booker Prize and was adapted into a film in 1993 starring Anthony Hopkins. Inconsolable (1995) is a more experimental novel about a musician and dreams, while When We Were Orphans (2000) explores a detective story set in Shanghai. Never Leave Me (2005), a dystopian tale of cloning, was adapted into a film in 2010. The Buried Giant (2015) mixes fantasy and history, and Clara and the Sun (2021) deals with artificial intelligence.

Ishiguro's novels, translated into more than 50 languages, have been praised for their emotional depth and universal themes, although some critics have found his style to be restrained. He has received numerous awards, including the OBE (1995) and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1998).