Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan but moved to England as a child and did not return to his home country for 30 years. In spite of this, his first two novels (A Pale View of the Hills and An Artist of the Floating World) are set in Japan—Ishiguro drew on the experiences of his Japanese-speaking parents but has claimed to be more inspired by British and European authors such as Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time). In 1986, Ishiguro met his future wife, Lorna MacDougall, while working at a homelessness charity, and the two have lived together in London ever since. Though Ishiguro’s earliest novels were well reviewed, it’s arguable that his breakthrough was The Remains of The Day (1989), which follows a road trip by an English butler in the aftermath of World War II and was later adapted into a film. Ishiguro is known for writing in many different genres: perhaps his best-known novel today is the science fiction story Never Let Me Go (2005), but he has also written in the mystery genre (When We Were Orphans, 2000) and fantasy (The Buried Giant, 2015). In 2017, Kazuo Ishiguro received the Nobel Prize for literature. Klara and the Sun (2021) was Ishiguro’s first novel since winning the award.