A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book. From the Trade Paperback edition. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Greeted with high praise in England, where it seems certain to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Ishiguro's third novel (after An Artist of the Floating World ) is a tour de force-- both a compelling psychological study and a portrait of a vanished social order. Stevens, an elderly butler who has spent 30 years in the service of Lord Darlington, ruminates on the past and inadvertently slackens his rigid grip on his emotions to confront the central issues of his life. Glacially reserved, snobbish and humorless, Stevens has devoted his life to his concept of duty and responsibility, hoping to reach the pinnacle of his profession through totally selfless dedication and a ruthless suppression of sentiment. Having made a virtue of stoic dignity, he is proud of his impassive response to his father's death and his ``correct'' behavior with the spunky former housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Ishiguro builds Stevens's character with precisely controlled details, creating irony as the butler unwittingly reveals his pathetic self-deception. In the poignant denouement, Stevens belatedly realizes that he has wasted his life in blind service to a foolish man and that he has never discovered ``the key to human warmth.'' While it is not likely to provoke the same shocks of recognition as it did in Britain, this insightful, often humorous and moving novel should significantly enhance Ishiguro's reputation here. (Oct.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

A fascinating novel about England by a Japanese-born English novelist. The narrative centers on Stevens, an aging English butler, and his solitary drive westward across the English countryside. It is a journey through his memory as well, and Stevens, who has so far structured his life around the meticulous details of caring for his uppre-class employers' comfort, gradually begins to confront the essential hollowness of his long life and the self-deception that has sustained him through it. Sad and humorous, this book is as much a haunting story about an ordinary man's heightened self-knowledge--which liberates as well as horrifies him--as it is a hilarious critique of the English class system and the uncertainties of postimperial Britain. Ishiguro, who has the advantage of being simultaneously a cultural insider and an observant outsider, projects a vision of English life that is affectionate as well as deftly ironic. Recommended for graduate and undergraduate students of English studies and general readers, this novel has just been awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in Britain. -E. S. Nelson, SUNY College at Cortland From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan on November 8, 1954. In 1960, his family moved to England. He received a Bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from the University of Kent in 1978 and a Master's degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia in 1980. He became a British citizen in 1982.

His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, received the Winifred Holtby Award from the Royal Society of Literature. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, received the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1986. His third novel, The Remains of the Day, won the 1989 Booker Prize, and was the basis of an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name that starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. His other works include The Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 for services to literature and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1998.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.