Author Kazuo Ishiguro Wins the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature

Talking to the BBC, Ishiguro said the award was “flabbergastingly flattering” and that “it’s a magnificent honor, mainly because it means that I’m in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived, so that’s a terrific commendation.” 

Indeed, Ishiguro joins the ranks of past Nobel laureates in Literature, a list that includes Toni Morrison (1993), William Golding (1983), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982), and Pablo Neruda (1971)—to name just a few. 

Born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954, Ishiguro's family moved to England when he was just five years old. The 62-year-old is now the author of seven novels, as well as several screenplays and works of short fiction. His latest novel, The Buried Giant, which is a fantasy story about a couple on a quest to find their son, was released in 2015. 

Ishiguro holds a Man Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day (1989) and a Whitbread Prize for An Artist of the Floating World (1986). Three of his novels have received film adaptations—most recently the dystopian drama Never Let Me Go (2010), which stars Keira Knightly, Carrie Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield. 

In addition to now standing among the ranks of literature’s finest, this award also comes with a prize of SEK 9 million (Swedish Krona), which equates to about $1.1 million US. 

Featured image: Nobelprize.org