WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS by Ishiguro, Kazuo - 2000

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 336 pages. The author's fifth novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are many. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Kazuo Ishiguro's "When We Were Orphans". A historical novel, with touches of the detective genre, on the author's lifelong theme: The inescapable Past and its near-unbearable weight upon the Present, that is to say, upon our ongoing lives. His evocation of 20th-century China at a liminal and tumultuous time, "Ishiguro has never been one for verbal pyrotechnics, but the unruffled surface of this haunting novel only adds to its emotional power. An extraordinary feat of sustained, perfectly controlled imagination. In Christopher Banks, the author has created one of his most memorable characters" (Simon Leake). Ishiguro himself left Japan at the age of five, young enough to forget yet old enough to re-imagine everything, his very own Japan, what the Nobel Prize Citation aptly describes as his imaginative "aesthetic universe". That is, his often bleak themes are rendered in - made bearable by - his pitch-perfect, austerely elegant prose: "One of the finest prose stylists of our time" (Michael Ondaatje). The Nobel Prize Citation is deeply moving, their 2017 Nobel Laureate is an inspired choice, but another authority sums it up best: "An original and remarkable genius" (The New York Times). The basis of the very fine film adaptation, "The White Countess", written by Kazuo Ishiguro, with Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson in career-peak performances. An absolute "must-have" title for Kazuo Ishiguro collectors. <b><i> This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the title page by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The recipient, who is named, obtained the signature in person at a rare public signing event in Chicago. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed and inscribed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. It is the single most beautiful signed copy we have ever seen. Please note: Copies available online command hundreds of dollars. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the Whitbread Prize in 1986 for "An Artist of The Floating World". Winner of the Booker Prize in 1989 for "The Remains of The Day". Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER KAZUO ISHIGURO TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375410546.