Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro

Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro collects nineteen interviews, conducted over the past two decades on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, with the author of Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day. The interviews collectively address the entirety of this literary artist’s career, affording readers of Ishiguro (b. 1954) the most vivid portrait yet of contexts and influences behind novels that have been garnering awards for a quarter-century. The interviews focus on the author’s six novels--A Pale View of Hills, An Artist of the Floating World, The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go--but also treat his short fiction, screenplays, and film adaptations of his novels. The writer’s evolving understanding of himself, his Japanese heritage, and his use of English and Japanese history are also discussed at length.

Though readers might expect Ishiguro to be reticent, given the nature of his protagonists, his responses are full, thoughtful, and frequently witty. The volume includes interviews from British, French, and American periodicals, a conversation between Ishiguro and acclaimed Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, and a new interview conducted with the book’s editors.

Brian W. Shaffer is professor of English and dean of academic affairs for faculty development at Rhodes College. He is the author of The Blinding Torch: Modern British Fiction and the Discourse of Civilization and Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro, among other works. Cynthia F. Wong is associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Denver. She is author of Writers and Their Work: Kazuo Ishiguro.