Kazuo Ishiguro to discuss acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go
Bestselling author Kazuo Ishiguro will discuss his work at the Man Booker at Birkbeck event
Bestselling author Kazuo Ishiguro will discuss the inspiration behind Never Let Me Go – a story of love and loss – at an event organised by Birkbeck and the Booker Prize Foundation. He will talk about his most recent novel, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize, with Professor Russell Celyn Jones, himself an award-winning novelist, former Man Booker judge and Professor of Creative Writing in Birkbeck’s School of Arts.
The event is being held at Friends’ House, Euston Road, NW1 2BJ, from 6pm-8pm on Wednesday 7 November. Booking is required for this free literary evening. Please book your place online.
Never Let Me Go
Never Let Me Go, set in a disturbingly skewed version of England in the late 1990s, is a story of love, friendship and memory, charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, the novel dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the dark fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world.
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, and has lived in Britain since the age of five. His other works include A Pale View of Hills (1982), An Artist of the Floating World (1986), The Remains of the Day (1989), The Unconsoled (1995), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009). He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times, winning the prize for The Remains of the Day.
His work has been translated into over forty languages, and he has been given many awards and honours, including the OBE for Services to Literature, and the French decoration Chevalier d'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were adapted into major films, the latter in 2010, starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. Kazuo Ishiguro also writes screenplays and song lyrics.
Kazuo Ishiguro said: “I'd suppose there are varying motives for creating a dystopian world in fiction. Mine, when writing Never Let Me Go, were probably not the usual ones. I'm looking forward to discussing this and other matters with students and the public at Birkbeck.”
Professor Hilary Fraser, Executive Dean of Birkbeck’s School of Arts, said: “The Man Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world and it is a privilege to be able to hear such a distinguished author speak about his work.”
Sharing contemporary fiction
The conversation between Kazuo Ishiguro and Professor Russell Celyn Jones is the second collaboration between Birkbeck and the Booker Prize Foundation.
At the inaugural event last year, acclaimed author Sarah Waters discussed her novel The Little Stranger, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. The partnership aims to bring together students from across the disciplines to discuss the best in contemporary fiction.
Booking: You can book your place online here.