Kazuo Ishiguro 1995. The Unconsoled. London: Faber and Faber. 535 pp.

Ishiguro’s masterpiece. Here is his most sustained, Dostoyevsky-like work. An extraordinary dream-like narrative which leaves the reader in doubt over what remains when memories and subjective awareness can’t be trusted (in other words, always). The Buried Giant carries this forward in a shorter more elegant narrative in a prehistoric setting but The Unconsoled is the more powerful both for the familiar setting and for being a longer more immersive experience. An author who can write this can write anything.