Kazuo Ishiguro’s New Fantasy Novel, “The Buried Giant”

“The Buried Giant” is published by Faber&Faber (UK),  Random House (US) and Penguin Random House (Canada) on the 3rd of March 2015.

  

This novel, “The Buried Giant,” will finally come out in early March 2015, and it’s the weirdest, riskiest and most ambitious thing Kazuo Ishiguro published in his celebrated 33-year career. Though it tackles many of Mr. Ishiguro’s hallmark themes — memory and how it fades and gets suppressed and distorted, and our inability to fully face the past — “The Buried Giant” signals a stark departure from his spare, emotionally understated novels like “The Remains of the Day,” and “Never Let Me Go,” an eerie and melancholy dystopian love story.” - Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

From the famous british author of the Booker Prize-winning “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go”, a new fantasy novel :

‘You’ve long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it’s time now to think on it anew. There’s a journey we must go on, and no more delay…’

“The Romans have long since departed, and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But at least the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased. The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge and war.”

“The versatile Kazuo Ishiguro has decided to write a fantasy set in the misty legendary British past. We are in a gloomy, frightening, uncertain, and dangerous world, some years after King Arthur died. Saxons and Britons are not actively at war, but loathe each other anyway. A mist pervades the countryside, muddling everyone’s memories. A mist has fallen on Britain, forcing the isle into a collective loss of memory. We follow an elderly couple (now known as Beatrice and Axl though Axl once had another name), who seem elaborately devoted to one another, and who are the central figures. After some mild ill-treatment in their cave-warren village they go on a journey to find their son, who for some reason is not living with them. Along the way they meet two heroic knights (Sir Gawain himself and Wistan the warrior) and some strange monks and some strange animals, including a most unusual dragon. Nothing is quite what it seems, and everything is sinister, with some magic in the background though just what is never clear.”

Kazuo Ishiguro is an original and remarkable genius.” —The New York Times

A new and precise voice has emerged into English literature and a keen eye sees the world from its individual angle.” — William Golding

A master craftsman.” — Margaret Atwood, Slate

Kazuo Ishiguro is a great novelist, maybe the best of our generation….  His best novels… stay with you long after the reading.” — André Alexis, The Globe and Mail

 

The exclusive launch signing of “The Buried Giant” is organized Monday 2nd of March 2015 at 6.30pm (GMT) at Waterstones Bookshop (203-206 Piccadilly), in London. Then Kazuo Ishiguro will be setting off on an eight-date book tour and will be visiting Manchester, Edinburgh, Bath, Ely, Nottingham and Oxford, with two dates in London – a Guardian Live event, during the 4th of March until the 12th of March : http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/buried-giant-book-tour-dates-announced/

Kazuo Ishiguro’s seven previous books have won him wide renown and numerous honors. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. Both “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go” have sold more than one million copies, and both were adapted into highly acclaimed films.

Book trailer :

http://theburiedgiant.co.uk/

http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/event/kazuo-ishiguro-buried-giant-launch-signing/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/books/for-kazuo-ishiguro-the-buried-giant-is-a-departure.html?_r=0

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/19/kazuo-ishiguro-the-buried-giant-novel-interview

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5szmQry0mv1SdFX9pDmr5jc/kazuo-ishiguro-the-giant-awakens

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/11140821/Kazuo-Ishiguro-My-wife-thought-first-draft-of-The-Buried-Giant-was-rubbish.html

Pics©Faber&Faber (UK),  Random House (US), Penguin Random House (Canada)