A Pale View of Hills

By Kazuo Ishiguro

Categories: Literature & Fiction

Etsuko, a Japanese widow living alone in the English countryside after the suicide of her elder daughter, narrates Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel, published in 1982. A visit from her younger daughter stirs memories of a summer in Nagasaki in the aftermath of the war. Those memories center on Sachiko, a woman hoping to leave Japan with an American, and her neglected young daughter, Mariko. The novel leaves open how much of Etsuko's account can be trusted.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “In fiction, Kazuo Ishiguro, whose first three books — “A Pale View of Hills,” “An Artist of the Floating World” and “The Remains of the Day” — are works of genius.”