Kazuo Ishiguro wins 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature

Renowned English author, Kazuo Ishiguro, on Thursday won the globally acclaimed Nobel Prize in Literature for what the prize committee in Sweden described as ‘‘works that uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”

In an event monitored on BBC, the committee said that Mr. Ishiguro, who moved to Britain when he was five years old, was most associated with the themes of memory, time and self-delusion.

“The Remains of the Day” (1989), perhaps his best-known work, was turned into a film starring Anthony Hopkins as the butler Stevens.

“Ishiguro’s writings are marked by a carefully restrained mode of expression, independent of whatever events are taking place,” the prize committee wrote in a statement on Twitter after the announcement.

“At the same time, his more recent fiction contains fantastic features.”

The 62-year-old writer was later quoted by BBC as saying the award was “flabbergastingly flattering.’’
“It’s a magnificent honour, mainly because it means that I’m in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived, so that’s a terrific commendation.”

He admitted that he hadn’t been contacted by the Nobel committee and was not sure whether it was a hoax.
The Nobel Laureate has written eight books, which have been translated into over 40 languages.

Ishiguro, listed by Wikipedia as one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors in the English-speaking world, has received four Man Booker Prize nominations.

He also won the 1989 award for his novel, ‘The Remains of the Day.’ Also, in 2008, The Times ranked Mr. Ishiguro as 32nd on its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.’’