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Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

Born: 8 November 1954
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Kazuo Ishiguro’s works of fiction have earned him many honours around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature

He was born in Nagasaki, Japan and moved to Britain at the age of five. His work has been translated into over 50 languages. The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were both made into acclaimed films, and have each sold more than 2 million copies. Ishiguro was awarded a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan.

In a time of dangerously increasing division, we must listen. Good writing and good reading will break down barriers.

Kazuo Ishiguro speaking upon award of The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017

Watch the 1989 ceremony

Kazuo Ishiguro Wins The 1989 Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro Wins The 1989 Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day

Read more on Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

How I wrote The Remains of the Day in four weeks: Kazuo Ishiguro speaks to the Guardian

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in Remains of the day, standing by a window.

How The Remains of the Day changed the way I think about England

Kazuo Ishiguro’s quietly subversive novel showed the English obsession with class and made this writer look at the country with fresh eyes

Reading guide: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Whether you’re new to The Remains of the Day or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide

Author Kazuo Ishiguro sitting in front of his books.

Where to start with Kazuo Ishiguro: a guide to his best books

From unreliable narrators and heartbreaking revelations to ‘the perfect novel’, here is our guide to the 1989 Booker Prize winner’s finest fiction

Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro Q&A

‘In 2005 I was a cynical veteran, battling through my fourth Man Booker shortlisting – and still completely thrilled to be at the ceremony.’

The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day

Winner of The Booker Prize 1989

By: Kazuo Ishiguro
Published by: Faber & Faber

Kazuo Ishiguro’s moving portrait of the perfect English butler, his loyalty and his fading, insular world in post-war England

Other nominated books

An Artist of the Floating World

An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro examines guilt, truth and ageing through the highly subjective reminiscences of a retired painter in post-war Japan

When We Were Orphans

When We Were Orphans

Kazuo Ishiguro’s adventurous combination of historical fiction and detective story, set largely in England and Shanghai of the 1930s

Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go

Thought-provoking and unsettling by turns, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel gradually unveils the true nature of three children’s apparently happy childhoods

Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly-changing world through the eyes of a unique narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?