The Nobel Lecture in Literature, delivered by Kazuo Ishiguro (The
Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans) at the Swedish Academy
in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 7, 2017, in an elegant, clothbound
edition.
In their announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish
Academy recognized the emotional force of Kazuo Ishiguro's fiction and
his mastery at uncovering our illusory sense of connection with the
world. In the eloquent and candid lecture he delivered upon accepting
the award, Ishiguro reflects on the way he was shaped by his upbringing,
and on the turning points in his career--"small scruffy moments . . .
quiet, private sparks of revelation"--that made him the writer he is
today.
With the same generous humanity that has graced his novels, Ishiguro
here looks beyond himself, to the world that new generations of writers
are taking on, and what it will mean--what it will demand of us--to make
certain that literature remains not just alive, but essential.
An enduring work on writing and becoming a writer, by one of the most
accomplished novelists of our generation.