Kazuo Ishiguro is a British novelist, screenwriter, and short-story writer, born in1954, in Nagasaki, Japan. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary writers of English-language fiction and has been honored with numerous awards for his contributions to literature, including the Nobel Prize.

Ishiguro’s family moved to England when he was five years old, and he grew up in Guildford, Surrey. He studied English and Philosophy at the University of Kent before completing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. During his time at UEA, he worked with the renowned writer Malcolm Bradbury, who became a mentor and a lifelong friend.

Ishiguro’s first novel, “A Pale View of Hills,” was published in 1982 and won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. His second novel, “An Artist of the Floating World” (1986), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. He gained widespread acclaim with his third novel, “The Remains of the Day” (1989), which won the Booker Prize and was adapted into a highly successful film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

Ishiguro has written seven novels to date, including “Never Let Me Go” (2005), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was adapted into a film starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield. His most recent novel, “Klara and the Sun” (2021), has been highly acclaimed by critics and readers alike.

In addition to his novels, Ishiguro has written screenplays for film and television, including the script for the film “The White Countess” (2005), directed by James Ivory. He has also published several collections of short stories, including “Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall” (2009).

Ishiguro’s work is characterized by his spare, elegant prose style and his exploration of themes of memory, identity, and the passage of time. His writing often explores the experiences of people who are displaced or disconnected from their cultural roots, and his novels often employ the device of an unreliable narrator.

Ishiguro has been recognized with numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. In Nobel Comittee’s words, Ishiguro was awarded the prize for the “novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”. He has also been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Knight Bachelor for his services to literature.

Awards

Some of the major awards won by Kazuo Ishiguro:

1. Booker Prize (1989) – “The Remains of the Day”
2. Whitbread Novel Award (1986, 1989) – “An Artist of the Floating World” and “The Remains of the Day”
3. Order of the British Empire (OBE) (1995)
4. Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1998)
5. James Tait Black Memorial Prize (2005) – “Never Let Me Go”
6. World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2006) – “Never Let Me Go”
7. Nobel Prize in Literature (2017)

In addition to these awards, Ishiguro has been shortlisted for several other prestigious literary prizes, including the Man Booker International Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.