The Unconsoled

In 1989 Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize for THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. THE UNCONSOLED, which followed, is the tale of Ryder, a pianist of international renown who has arrived in a European city he cannot identify to give a concert he cannot recall agreeing to give. In the days before the concert, he is led in and out of the lives of seeming strangers, who overwhelm Ryder with their inexplicable knowledge and expectations of him. By turns eerie and comical, these fleeting acquaintances become part of the dream-like reality of a man whose public self has taken on a life of its own. With its emotional power and profound insight, THE UNCONSOLED is a seamless fictional universe in which uncanny, surreal experiences point to the very real double-binds and blind-ends of everyday life.

"Ishiguro has become one of the finest prose stylists of our time." (Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient)