728. A Pale View of Hills

A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro
1982
Around 185 pages

Could the List authors at least save their masterpieces for the third or fourth novel in their canon? This is really starting to make me feel insecure. So happy that Ishiguro is now on the List, we are definitely building our A-team here.

During a visit from her daughter, Niki, Etsuko reflects on her life as a young woman in Japan, and how she left that country and moved to England. Etsuko and her Japanese husband, Jiro, had a daughter together, and a few years later Etsuko met a British man and moved with him to England. She took her elder daughter, Keiko, to England to live with her and the new husband and had a second daughter. In England, Keiko becomes increasingly solitary and antisocial. 

So another beautifully depressing work. Ishiguro is very sympathetic to his characters, so you feel deeply for everybody in the story. I enjoyed the themes of loss and memory, and at the very least, it shows the promise Ishiguro has a storyteller. 

Not the best Ishiguro has to offer, but a damn near perfect debut.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

He received a £1000 advance from publishers Faber and Faber for the novel.

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