Japanese-British novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro has won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature. The novelist, best known for his book “The Remains of the Day,” was Thursday awarded the 2017 most respected prize in literature.
The Swedish Academy said his “novels of great emotional force [had] uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”
Ishiguro, who was born in Japan but moved to the United Kingdom when he turned five, has written eight books as well as many scripts for film and television.
His most renowned and followed novel, ”The Remains of the Day,” published in 1989 was converted into a 1993 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins.
The academy says the themes Ishiguro is most known for are memory, time, and self-delusion.
Last year’s $1.1 million prize was awarded to Bob Dylan, sparking a debate on the relevance of popular song lyrics and their legitimacy in the world of literature.
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and inventor whose will established the prizes, said he wanted the literature award to honor “ideal” work, without defining the term. Those who awarded Dylan believe he has written something worthy of an award and since there was no categorical classification of literature, from inception, a written work of great meaning and strong depth may be good enough to cart home the award.
Ishiguro represents an Asian clime in literature that has been dated back to history and takes his Japanese roots into perspective when he writes.
