The book was at a reasonably high position on the New York Times... before I was in the country. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if my presence here would push it up or down.

The Remains of the Day is set in the large country house of an English lord in the period surrounding World War II. He became a British citizen in 1982. His fourth novel The Unconsoled takes place in an unnamed Central European city.

In 2008 The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Recently his novel Never Let Me Go has been adapted to film.