Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Prize in Literature
No one had expected him, and yet... The novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has worked for a long time, carving patiently sentences which are a miracle of subtle delicateness and sensitivity, and has now won the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Although he is well-known among the general public, thanks to his numerous prizes such as the Man Booker Prize, and movies -who has forgotten Anthony Hopkins faced to Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day (1994)?, everyone was waiting for a prize worthy of his masterpieces published in English and translated into French.
Born in Japan, Kazuo Ishiguro first studied English and Philosophy at the University of Kent, followed by a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 1980.
His first book, A Pale View of Hills (1982) was published by Faber & Faber, quickly followed by a French translation, thanks to Sophie Mayoux, under the title Lumière pâle sur les collines at Folio (Gallimard). His third book, The Remains of the Days, was praised by everyone in 1989, and was translated into French in 1990. But this is only a glimpse of his fabulous work (see below for a complete list of his books).
Thanks to his large success, he was soon awarded numerous prizes: four times in the final round of the Man Booker Prize, he succeeds in 1989 for The Remains of the Day. Two adaptations of his novels were released: The Remains of the Day in 1994 by James Ivory and Never Let Me Go in 2010 by Mark Romanek.
And he was decorated Knight of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France no later than 1998!
Published in English at Faber and Faber, he was already well-known of the French readers for all his books have been translated into French by Sophie Mayoux, Anne Rabinovitch, François Rosse and Denis Luthier at Gallimard and three at les Editions des Deux Terres. They were also a must read for students in English, for The Remains of the Day was part of the programme for the English agrégation in 1999.
Moreover, Kazuo Ishiguro came to France for different occasions: in 2015 the University Paris-Sorbonne organised a talk about his book The Buried Giant and he also made a public appearance at the National French Library in a talk with Florent Georgesco. Well-known Francophile, Kazuo Ishiguro was part of the jury for the festival de Cannes in 1994 -where Pulp Fiction won first prize, and was invited in 2017 for the dinner 'Good France' by former ambassador in London Sylvie Bermann.
According to Sara Danius, lifelong secretary of the Nobel Academy, Kazuo Ishiguro is a mix of Jane Austen and Kafka.
If you haven't read him yet, it's not too late; if you already know him, let us make a toast to a master in literature!
Novels
A Pale View of Hills (1982) (Lumière pâle sur les collines, Folio, 1984, tr by Sophie Mayoux)
An Artist of the Floating World (1986) (Un artiste du monde flottant, Folio, 1987, tr by Denis Luthier)
The Remains of the Day (1989) (Les Vestiges du jour, Folio, 1990, tr by Sophie Mayoux)
The Unconsoled (1995) (L'Inconsolé, Folio, 1997, tr by Sophie Mayoux)
When We Were Orphans (2000) (Quand nous étions orphelins, Folio, 2001, tr by François Rosso)
Never Let Me Go (2005) (Auprès de moi toujours, Folio et Éditions des Deux Terres, 2006, tr by Anne Rabinovitch)
The Buried Giant (2015) (Le Géant enfoui, Folio et Éditions des Deux Terres, 2015, tr by Anne Rabinovitch)
Scenarii
A Profile of Arthur J.Mason (for Channel 4, 1984)
The Gourmet (for the BBC, 1987)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
The White Countess (2005)
Short Stories
'A Strange and Sometimes Sadness', 'Waiting for J' and 'Getting Poisoned' in Introduction 7: Stories by New Writer (Faber and Faber, 1981)
'The Summer After the War' (published in the magazine Granta, n°7, 1983)
'A Family Supper' (Firebird, 1983)
'A Village After Dark' (The New Yorker, 2001)
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (Faber and Faber, 2009) (Nocturnes, Folio et Éditions des Deux Terres, 2010, tr by Anne Rabinovitch)
Lyrics
The Ice Hotel, I Wih I Could Go Travelling Again, Breakfast on the Morning Tram and So Romantic for the album Breakfast on the Morning Tram (2007) by American jazz singer Stacey Kent, and The Summer We Crossed Europe In the Rain, Waiter, Oh Waiter and The Changing Lights for the album The Changing Lights (2013) by Stacey Kent.