In fact, Ishiguro has said that his interest in writing started as a way to preserve his fading memories of Japan, a country he would not see again until 1989. Although Ishiguro and his two sisters attended English schools and had fairly typical English childhood experiences, at home they spoke Japanese and integrated their Japanese roots into their lives. Although the family expected to stay only a few years, his father's work kept them there much longer until England had truly become their home.
When he was six, he and his family moved to England where his father was commissioned by the British government to work on a project. Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, on November 8, 1954, to Shizuo (an oceanographer) and Shizuko (a homemaker). Ishiguro's choice of subject matter in this book-and the realism with which he depicts it-demonstrates the importance of England's past and culture to him. He responds by saying that most of his life experience has taken place in England and that his fictional influences are Britain's writers. While some critics maintain that although Ishiguro's setting is not Japan, the book retains a strong sense of the author's Japanese heritage, Ishiguro is quick to disagree. Further, the tone is controlled, the language is carefully crafted, and the themes revolve around the position of the individual within a society.
Still, it is consistent with his writing style in that the book is told from a first-person point of view by a person who faces past self-deception and regret. Ishiguro's first two novels were set in Japan, so The Remains of the Day represents a departure in the author's work. As he considers his past, he is forced to come to terms with the gravity of the sacrifices he has made in the name of duty. The book is, in effect, a character study of Stevens, an aging butler who has spent thirty years in service at Darlington Hall. Kazuo Ishiguro's third novel, The Remains of the Day, earned the 1989 Booker Prize, England's highest literary honor.
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