LONDON — Kazuo Ishiguro, the novelist best known for his book “The Remains of the Day,” was Thursday awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for 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 was five years old, has written eight books as well as scripts for film and television.
His most renowned novel, ”The Remains of the Day,” published in 1989 was turned into a 1993 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins.
The academy says the themes Ishiguro is most associated with are memory, time, and self-delusion.
Last year’s $1.1 million prize was awarded to Bob Dylan, sparking a debate about whether popular song lyrics can legitimately be considered literature.
Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor whose will established the prizes, said he wanted the literature award to honor “ideal” work, without defining the term.