What happened here? It's one of those novels where I can't help wondering if there's some underlying symbolism or metaphorical brilliance that totally went over my head. Unfortunately, having read the book, I'm still not even sure. Nevertheless, I too was intrigued about what would happen when a highly-acclaimed author of literary fiction transitioned into fantasy. I have only read one other Ishiguro novel and that is Never Let Me Go. In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer 'who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world'. In 2008, The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of 'The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945'. His novels An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go (2005) were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017. His latest novel is The Buried Giant, a New York Times bestseller. His fourth novel, The Unconsoled, won the 1995 Cheltenham Prize.

Ishiguro received the 1989 Man Booker prize for his third novel The Remains of the Day. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, won the 1986 Whitbread Prize. His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980. Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ or 石黒一雄), OBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist of Japanese origin and Nobel Laureate in Literature (2017). Sometimes savage, sometimes mysterious, always intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade tells a luminous story about the act of forgetting and the power of memory, a resonant tale of love, vengeance, and war.

Nor can they foresee that they will be joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and a knight-each of them, like Axl and Beatrice, lost in some way to his own past, but drawn inexorably toward the comfort, and the burden, of the fullness of a life’s memories. They know they will face many hazards-some strange and otherworldly-but they cannot foresee how their journey will reveal to them the dark and forgotten corners of their love for each other.

Axl and Beatrice, a couple of elderly Britons, decide that now is the time, finally, for them to set off across this troubled land of mist and rain to find the son they have not seen for years, the son they can scarcely remember. But, at least, the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. The Romans have long since departed and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. From the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day

Unbreak me reese rivers