Kazuo Ishiguro Wins 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature

Posted on October 5, 2017

Kazuo Ishiguro has been named the winner fo the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. Ishiguro was born in Japan and then moved to England with his family. He has been writing critically acclaimed novels since 1982. His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, was based on his thesis. His latest novel, The Buried Giant, was published in 2015. Ishiguro's announcement is being much more well received than last year's winner, Bob Dylan.

The Nobel Prize announcement was made today by the the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden. The Academy says Ishiguro writes novels of "great emotional force." They also say Ishiguro has "uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world." Ishiguro says the Prize is a "magnificent honor" and that winning the award is "flabbergastingly flattering."

The announcement was made by Professor Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy. She talked to journalist Elise Karlsson about Ishiguro after the announcement. She says his is style is a "mix of Jane Austen and Franz Kafka." She says you also have to add "a little bit of Marcel Proust into the mix" and then stir. She says her favorite book is The Buried Giant.

Ishiguro talks about two of his novels in this video interview. He explains one of his metaphors, which is that most of us are "butlers" - in that most of us do small jobs - we don't get to run companies or countries. He says, "We often don't understand the context in which we make our best efforts but we try to take pride and dignity in what we do and we try to do it very well." Take a look:

You can read an interview with Ishiguro here.