Ishiguro, Kazuo (1954– )

Japanese-born British novelist. His novel An Artist of the Floating World won the 1986 Whitbread Prize, and The Remains of the Day, about an English butler coming to realize the extent of his self-sacrifice and self-deception, won the 1989 Booker Prize and was made into a successful film in 1993. His works, which are characterized by a sensitive style and subtle structure, also include The Unconsoled (1995), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go (2005), the latter two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Ishiguro moved with his family to England in 1960 and worked briefly as a social worker. He attended the creative writing course established by the late Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson at the University of East Anglia 1979–80. His first novel, A Pale View of Hills (1982), takes place mainly in his native Nagasaki, dealing obliquely with the aftermath of the atom bomb. An Artist of the Floating World is set entirely in Japan but thematically linked to The Remains of the Day. All three have in common a melancholy reassessment of the past.

Ishiguro also wrote the screenplay for the historical film The White Countess (2005).