From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day, here is a novel that is at once a gripping psychological mystery, a wicked satire of the cult of art and a poignant character study of a man whose public life has accelerated beyond his control.
The setting is a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past. In The Unconsoled, Ishiguro creates a work that is itself a virtuoso performance, strange, haunting and resonant with humanity and wit.
Hard book to read
"I really like Kazuo's writing and have enjoyed some of his other books however i really struggled to get through this and only finished it because he writes so beautifully and I wanted to see how it all resolved (it didn't). The whole book is like a bad dream; the one where you are trying to get somewhere or do something and you get thwarted at every turn. It's a very frustrating book and I'm not sure what the author was trying to accomplish in writing it. Nothing gets explained at the end and you are left feeling very disatisfied. It was just a big waste of time."
