Where to Start Reading Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro is a masterful storyteller, exploring themes of memory and identity through stunningly nuanced characters and moving stories that have earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. To celebrate his upcoming novel Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger and the film adaptation of Klara and the Sun, we have compiled your one-stop guide to the enchanting work of Kazuo Ishiguro. His catalog spans spy stories, speculative fiction, historical novels, lyrics and screenplays, so every reader can find their perfect introduction.

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Kazuo Ishiguro returns with a spy novel set in 1930s London. When Richard Hadley crosses paths with the mysterious Miss Lambert and follows her to a secretive conference, he finds himself on the cusp of something momentous…he just isn’t quite sure what it is yet.

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This is the story of Klara, an advanced and keenly observant Artificial Friend whose sole purpose is to help the child who owns her. Hopeful and haunting at the same time, Klara’s story leads to big questions that will leave you digging deep for answers.

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With beautiful restraint, Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning breakthrough examines class, identity and unexpected freedom through the eyes of a devoted butler as he reminisces about 30 years of English history through the lens of his own.

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This heartbreaking, genre-bending novel about memory, belonging, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are was ahead of its time and brought an even wider audience to Ishiguro's work.

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Two parents in search of their son journey through a post-Arthurian land of knights and ogres where a strange mist has caused mass amnesia. This stunning examination of collective memory is an intimate portrait of humanity and a fantastical voyage all in one.

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Kazuo Ishiguro's debut novel intertwines a mother's personal meditation on grief with scenes of post World War II Japan for a beautiful and haunting narrative.

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Also set in post-war Japan, An Artist of the Floating World follows a painter contending with his past, his regrets and the aftermath of the war.

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A detective returns to his birthplace of Shanghai to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of his parents 20 years prior. This is a twisting, labyrinthine novel of obsession, memory and forgiveness.

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A sprawling, satirical narrative unfolds when a pianist arrives in town for a recital, only to be diverted by a strange series of tasks for the esoteric locals.

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With a mix of humor and heartbreak, five musicians on the brink of epiphany navigate love, regret and insecurity in this melancholic collection of interconnected stories.

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Ishiguro's signature style is set to music with lyrics written for jazz singer Stacy Kent. Longing, romance and wanderlust are captured in this fully illustrated collection of songs.