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parsed(2001-05-29) - pubdate: 05/01
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pub date: 991112400
today: 1711602000, pubdate > today = false

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When We Were Orphans

May 29, 2001 | Trade paperback
ISBN: 9780676973068
$21.00
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Description

Christopher Banks, the narrator of Ishiguro's latest novel, seems reliable at first. But as the novel unfolds, his weaknesses are uncovered. His perceptions, at once awkward and elegant, are couched in a language that is obsessed with impersonal detail. Banks is ostensibly a famous English detective who goes to his boyhood home of Shanghai in the 1930s to solve the mystery of his parents' disappearance. But Banks has lost more than his parents. He has lost himself. A fascinating look at a character trapped in his own language.

About this Author

KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honours around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over fifty languages and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have sold millions of copies worldwide. He was given 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.

ISBN: 9780676973068
Format: Trade paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: 2001-05-29

Reviews

"Ishiguro is a stylist like no other, a writer who knows that the truth is often unspoken." --Maclean's

"A detective story, childhood memoir and political fable in one. . . . A rich exploration of the rupture of childhood and the baggage we carry from that 'foreign land,' filled with suspense, intrigue and a lightning-flash denouement." --The Guardian

"Beautifully written . . . [capturing] the joys, pains and adventures of two young boys, one not quite English and one not quite Japanese, in a protected enclave in a foreign land. This is superb writing which addresses the complexities of national and racial loyalties and the struggle to live up to the higher human ideals found beyond such limiting notions." --National Post

"One of the finest prose stylists of our time." --Michael Ondaatje

"Ishiguro, along with Kafka, is the great bureaucratic fabulist of anxiety. Anxiety is his imaginative architecture." --The Guardian

"Ishiguro's riskiest, funniest, most chaotic book yet. . . . Subtle and sad at first, the book shades into black hilarity." --The Globe and Mail

"[Ishiguro] takes the notion of an unreliable narrator to new heights of tension." --Boston Globe Books

"A real page-turner . . . an enigmatic crime, a vivid portrait of old Shanghai, a hero whose blindness to his own inner life lets readers see something of themselves." --Vogue

"Ishiguro intends surrealism. Through that lens, we repeatedly glimpse and hurt for the perpetual lost boy in Banks as he rewrites his guilt-ridden manhood. The novel's poignancy is deepened, and the prevailing metaphor--our futile descent into childhood's fictive consolations--reveals wonders." --The Calgary Straight

"Ishiguro shows immense tenderness for his characters, however absurd or deluded they may be. . . .  In its use of an array of techniques to illuminate psychological and political truths, When We Were Orphans confirms Ishiguro as one of Britain's most formally daring and challenging novelists." --The Guardian

"Don't expect a heartwarming read when you open When We Were Orphans. But it's not depressing, either, because Ishiguro knows how to keep the nightmare interesting, even buoyant. . . . Like certain other contemporary writers, such as Paul Auster, Ishiguro has discovered a strong narrative can just as easily convey existential reality." --The Toronto Star

"Ishiguro is probably the most interesting writer about war working at present. Even when he seems to be writing about something else, Ishiguro's writing is infused with a profound sense of the effect that great historical events have on people's lives. This, not blood and guts and perfectly researched period underwear details, is the real story of the cataclysmic century just closed." --The Independent

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