Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Pale View of Hills | 1982 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 2 | An Artist of the Floating World | 1986 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 3 | The Remains of the Day | 1989 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 4 | The Unconsoled | 1995 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 5 | When We Were Orphans | 2000 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 6 | Never Let Me Go | 2005 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 7 | The Buried Giant | 2015 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
| 8 | Klara and the Sun | 2021 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy |
Kazuo Ishiguro’s eight standalone novels represent one of the most acclaimed bodies of work in contemporary fiction. His debut, A Pale View of Hills (1982), draws on his Japanese heritage to tell the story of a woman living in England who recalls her time in post-war Nagasaki. An Artist of the Floating World (1986) continues his exploration of post-war Japan through the eyes of a retired painter.
The Remains of the Day (1989) is his most celebrated work, following the repressed English butler Stevens as he takes a motoring trip through the countryside and looks back on his decades of service. The Unconsoled (1995) is a more experimental novel set in a dreamlike European city, while When We Were Orphans (2000) blends detective fiction with a story of childhood loss in Shanghai.
Never Let Me Go (2005) marked a turn toward science fiction, imagining a boarding school with a dark secret about its students. The Buried Giant (2015) is set in post-Arthurian Britain and explores collective memory through a fantasy lens. Klara and the Sun (2021) continues the science fiction thread with the story of a solar-powered artificial friend and her observations about love and sacrifice.