The Remains of the Day: A Novel

Kazuo Ishiguro

Mar 2014 · Vintage Canada

About this ebook

Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning masterpiece became an international bestseller on publication, was adapted into an award-winning film, and has since come to be regarded as a modern classic.
 
The Remains of the Day is a spellbinding portrayal of a vanished way of life and a haunting meditation on the high cost of duty. It is also one of the most subtle, sad and humorous love stories ever written. It is the summer of 1956, when Stevens, a man who has dedicated himself to his career as a perfect butler in the one-time great house of Darlington Hall, sets off on a holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and, unexpectedly, into his own past, especially his friendship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. As memories surface of his lifetime "in service" to Lord Darlington, and of his life between the wars, when the fate of the continent seemed to lie in the hands of a few men, he finds himself confronting the dark undercurrent beneath the carefully run world of his employer.

Ratings and reviews

This is a very touching story; the reflections of a butler of a great house of England, who let the warmth of human relationships pass him by while he devoted himself to service. While Mr. Steven's use of language is very formal and rather convoluted, one gets used to it and then you are drawn into the story of his life. I recommend this book.

About the author

KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and came to Britain at the age of five. He is the author of six novels: A Pale View of Hills (1982), An Artist of the Floating World (1986, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Remains of the Day (1989, winner of the Booker Prize), The Unconsoled (1995), When We Were Orphans (2000, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Never Let Me Go (2005, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), and the short-story cycle Nocturnes (2009). His work has been translated into over forty languages. The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were adapted into major films. Ishiguro has received many honours around the world, including the OBE for Services to Literature, and the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.