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Kazuo Ishiguro was born on November 8, 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan. The family moved to the United Kingdom when he was five years old; he returned to visit his country of birth only as an adult. In the late 1970s, Ishiguro graduated in English and Philosophy at the University of Kent, and then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Kazuo Ishiguro has been a full-time author ever since his first book, A Pale View of Hills (1982). Both his first novel and the subsequent one, An Artist of the Floating World (1986) take place in Nagasaki a few years after the Second World War. The themes Ishiguro is most associated with are already present here: memory, time, and self-delusion. This is particularly notable in his most renowned novel, The Remains of the Day (1989), which was turned into film with Anthony Hopkins acting as the duty-obsessed butler Stevens.

Ishiguro’s writings are marked by a carefully restrained mode of expression, independent of whatever events are taking place. At the same time, his more recent fiction contains fantastic features. With the dystopian work Never Let Me Go (2005), Ishiguro introduced a cold undercurrent of science fiction into his work. In this novel, as in several others, we also find musical influences. A striking example is the collection of short stories titled Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009), where music plays a pivotal role in depicting the characters’ relationships. In his latest novel, The Buried Giant (2015), an elderly couple go on a road trip through an archaic English landscape, hoping to reunite with their adult son, whom they have not seen for years. This novel explores, movingly, how memory relates to oblivion, history to the present, and fantasy to reality.

Apart from his eight books, Ishiguro has also written scripts for film and television.

Bibliography – a selection

Works in English

A Pale View of Hills. – London : Faber & Faber, 1982

An Artist of the Floating World. – London : Faber & Faber, 1986

The Remains of the Day. – London : Faber & Faber, 1989

The Unconsoled. – London : Faber & Faber, 1995

When We Were Orphans. – London : Faber & Faber, 2000

Never Let Me Go. – London : Faber & Faber, 2005

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. – London : Faber & Faber, 2009

The Buried Giant. – London : Faber & Faber, 2015

Short Stories

”A Strange and Sometimes Sadness”, ”Waiting for J.” and ”Getting Poisoned” in Introduction: No. 7: Stories by New Writers. – London : Faber & Faber, 1981

”A Family Supper” in Firebird 2 : Writing Today / edited by T. J. Binding. – Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1983

”The Summer After the War” in Granta, 1983:7

”October 1948” in Granta, 1985:17

”A Village After Dark” in The New Yorker, May 21, 2001

Film and Television

A Profile of Arthur J. Mason / directed by Michael Whyte ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1984

The Gourmet / directed by Michael Whyte ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1986

”The Gourmet” in Granta, 1993:43

The Remains of the Day / directed by James Ivory ; screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, 1993

The Saddest Music in the World / directed by Guy Maddin ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2003

The White Countess / directed by James Ivory ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005

Never Let Me Go / directed by Mark Romanek ; screenplay by Alex Garland, 2010

Works in French

Lumière pâle sur les collines : roman / traduit de l’anglais par Sophie Mayoux. – Paris : Presses de la Renaissance, 1984. – Traduction de: A Pale View of Hills

Un artiste du monde flottant / traduit de l’anglais par Denis Authier. – Paris : Presses de la Renaissance, 1987. – Traduction de: An Artist of the Floating World

Les vestiges du jour / traduit de l’anglais par Sophie Mayoux. – Paris : Presses de la Renaissance, 1990. – Traduction de: The Remains of the Day

L’inconsolé : roman / traduit de l’anglais par Sophie Mayoux. – Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 1997. – Traduction de: The Unconsoled

Quand nous étions orphelins : roman / traduit de l’anglais par François Rosso. – Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 2001. – Traduction de: When We Were Orphans

Auprès de moi toujours / traduit de l’anglais par Anne Rabinovitch. – Paris : Éditions des 2 Terres, 2006. – Traduction de: Never Let Me Go

Nocturnes : cinq nouvelles de musique au crépuscule / traduit de l’anglais par Anne Rabinovitch. – Paris : Éditions des 2 terres, 2010. – Traduction de: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Le géant enfoui : roman / traduit de l’anglais par Anne Rabinovitch. – Paris : Éditions des 2 terres, 2015. – Traduction de: The Buried Giant

Other

Un village à la nuit tombée : nouvelle / Kazuo Ishiguro ; traduit de l’anglais par François Rosso ; postface de François Gallix. – Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 2001. – Traduction de : A Village After Dark

Works in Spanish

Pálida luz en las colinas / traducción de Ángel Luis Hernández Francés. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 1988. – Título original: A Pale View of Hills

Un artista del mundo flotante / traducción de Ángel Luis Hernández Francés. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 1989. – Título original: An Artist of the Floating World

Los restos del día / traducción de Ángel Luis Hernández Francés. –Barcelona : Círculo de Lectores, D.L.1991. – Título original: The Remains of the Day

Los inconsolables / traducción de Jesús Zulaika. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 1997. – Título original: The Unconsoled

Cuando fuimos huérfanos / traducción de Jesús Zulaika. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 2001. – Título original: When We Were Orphans

Nocturnos : cinco historias de música y crepúsculo / traducción de Antonio-Prometeo Moya. – Barcelona : Anagrama 2010. – Título original: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Nunca me abandones / traducción de Jesús Zulaika. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 2005. – Título original: Never Let Me Go

Los restos del día / traducción de Ángel Luis Hernández Francés. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 2015. – Título original: The Remains of the Day

El gigante enterrado / traducción de Mauricio Bach. – Barcelona : Anagrama, 2016. – Título original: The Buried Giant

Other

”El gourmet” in Granta, 3 / editores, Valerie Miles y Aurelio Major. – Barcelona : Emecé, 2004. – Título original: The Gourmet

Works in Swedish

Berg i fjärran / översättning av Ann Henning. – Stockholm : Viva, 1985. – Originaltitel: A Pale View of Hills

Konstnär i den flytande världen / översättning av Ann Henning. – Stockholm : Viva, 1987. – Originaltitel: An Artist of the Floating World

Återstoden av dagen / översättning av Annika Preis. – Stockholm : Viva, 1990. – Originaltitel: The Remains of the Day

Den otröstade / översättning av Rose-Marie Nielsen. – Stockholm : Wahlström & Widstrand, 1996. – Originaltitel: The Unconsoled

Vi som var föräldralösa /översättning av Rose-Marie Nielsen. – Stockholm : Wahlström & Widstrand, 2000. – Originaltitel: When We Were Orphans

Never let me go /översättning av Rose-Marie Nielsen. – Stockholm : Wahlström & Widstrand, 2005. – Originaltitel: Never Let Me Go

Nocturner : fem berättelser om skymning och musik /översättning av Rose-Marie Nielsen. – Stockholm : Wahlström & Widstrand, 2010. – Originaltitel: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Begravd jätte /översättning av Rose-Marie Nielsen. – Stockholm : Wahlström & Widstrand, 2016. – Originaltitel: The Buried Giant

Works in German

Damals in Nagasaki : Roman / übersetzt von Margarete Längsfeld. – Zürich : Arche, 1984. – Originaltitel: A Pale View of Hills

Der Maler der fliessenden Welt : Roman / übersetzt von Hartmut Zahn. – Stuttgart : Klett-Cotta, 1988. – Originaltitel: An Artist of the Floating World

Was vom Tage übrigblieb : Roman / übersetzt von Hermann Stiehl. – Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt, 1990. – Originaltitel: The Remains of the Day

Die Ungetrösteten : Roman / übersetzt von Isabell Lorenz. – Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt, 1996. – Originaltitel: The Unconsoled

Als wir Waisen waren : Roman / übersetzt von Sabine Herting. – München : Knaus, 2000. – Originaltitel: When We Were Orphans

Alles, was wir geben mussten : Roman / übersetzt von Barbara Schaden. – München : Blessing, 2005. – Originaltitel: Never Let Me Go

Bei Anbruch der Nacht / übersetzt von Barbara Schaden. – München : Blessing, 2009. – Originaltitel: Nocturnes : Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Der begrabene Riese : Roman / übersetzt von Barbara Schaden. – München : Blessing, 2015. – Originaltitel: The Buried Giant

Other

”A family supper = Ein Familien-Essen” in Contemporary British short stories = Englische Kurzgeschichten / Auswahl und übersetzt von Harald Raykowski ; unter Mitarb. von Stefanie Lotz. – München : Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verl., 1997

Further reading

Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro / edited by Brian W. Shaffer and Cynthia F. Wong. – Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2008

Drąg, Wojciech, Trauma and Nostalgia in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro. – Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014

Garland, Alex, Never Let Me Go / screenplay by Alex Garland ; introduction by Kazuo Ishiguro. – London : Faber and Faber, 2011

Horton, Emily, Contemporary Crisis Fictions : Affects and Ethics in the Modern British Novel. – Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Kazuo Ishiguro : Contemporary Critical Perspectives / edited by Sean Matthews and Sebastian Groes. – London : Continuum, 2009

Kazuo Ishiguro : New Critical Visions of the Novels / edited by Sebastian Groes and Barry Lewis. – Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Kazuo Ishiguro in A Global Context / edited by Cynthia F. Wong and Hülya Yildiz. – Farnham : Ashgate, 2015

Lewis, Barry, Kazuo Ishiguro. – Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2000

Parkes, Adam, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day : A Reader’s Guide. – New York : Continuum, 2001

Petry, Mike, Narratives of Memory and Identity : The Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro. – Frankfurt/M. : Lang, 1999

Shaffer, Brian W., Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro. – Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 1997

Sim, Wai-chew, Globalization and Dislocation in the Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro. – Leviston, N. Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006

Sim, Wai-chew, Kazuo Ishiguro. – London : Routledge, 2009

Stanton, Katherine, Cosmopolitan Fictions : Ethics, Politics, and Global Change in the Works of Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Ondaatje, Jamaica Kincaid, and J. M. Coetzee. – New York : Routledge, 2005

Teo, Yugin, Kazuo Ishiguro and Memory. – Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Wong, Cynthia F., Kazuo Ishiguro. – Tavistock : Northcote House in association with the British Council, 2000

The Swedish Academy