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England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime ...Show synopsisEngland, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him; the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in Old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Now, as the world lurches towards total war, Banks realises the time has come for him to return to the city of his childhood and at last solve the mystery - that only by his doing so will civilisation be saved from the approaching catastrophe. Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, "When We Were Orphans" is a story of memory, intrigue and the need to return; of a childhood vision of the world surviving deep into adulthood, indelibly shaping and distorting a person's life.Hide synopsis
When We Were Orphans (Vintage Books Canada) – Trade paperback (2001)
by
Kazuo Ishiguro
Trade paperback, Vintage Books Canada 2001
English
320 pages
ISBN: 067697306X ISBN-13: 9780676973068
British writer Kazuo Ishiguro won the 1989 Booker Prize for "The Remains of the Day," which sold over a million copies in English alone and was the basis of a film starring Anthony Hopkins. Now "When We Were Orphans," his extraordinary fifth novel, has been called "his fullest achievement yet" ("The New York Times Book Review") and placed him again on the Booker shortlist. A complex, intelligent, subtle and restrained psychological novel built along the lines of a detective story, it confirms Ishiguro as one of the most ...Show moreBritish writer Kazuo Ishiguro won the 1989 Booker Prize for "The Remains of the Day," which sold over a million copies in English alone and was the basis of a film starring Anthony Hopkins. Now "When We Were Orphans," his extraordinary fifth novel, has been called "his fullest achievement yet" ("The New York Times Book Review") and placed him again on the Booker shortlist. A complex, intelligent, subtle and restrained psychological novel built along the lines of a detective story, it confirms Ishiguro as one of the most important writers in English today. London's "Sunday Times" said: "You seldom read a novel that so convinces you it is extending the possibilities of fiction." The novel takes us to Shanghai in the late 1930s, with English detective Christopher Banks bent on solving the mystery that has plagued him all his life: the disappearance of his parents when he was eight. By his own account, he is now a celebrated gentleman sleuth, the toast of London society. But as we learn, he is also a solitary figure, his career built on an obsession. Believing his parents may still be held captive, he longs to put right as an adult what he was powerless to change as a child, when he played at being Sherlock Holmes -- before both his parents vanished and he was sent to England to be raised by an aunt. Banks' father was involved in the importation of opium, and solving the mystery means finding that his boyhood was not the innocent, enchanted world he has cherished in memory. The Shanghai he revisits is in the throes of the Sino--Japanese war, an apocalyptic nightmare; he sees the horror of the slums surrounding the international community in "a dreamscape worthy of Borges" ("The Independent"). "We think that if we can only put something right that went a bit awry, then our lives would be healed and the world would be healed," says Ishiguro of the illusion under which his hero suffers. It becomes increasingly clear that Banks is not to be trusted as a narrator. The stiff, elegant voice grows more hysterical, his vision more feverish, as he comes closer to the truth. Like Ryder of "The Unconsoled," Ishiguro's previous novel, Banks is trapped in his boyhood fantasy, and he follows his obsession at the cost of personal happiness. Other characters appear as projections of his fears and desires. All Ishiguro's novels concern themselves with the past, the consequences of denying it and the unreliability of memory. It is from Ishiguro's own family history that the novel takes its setting. Though his family is Japanese, Ishiguro's father was born in Shanghai's international community in 1920; his grandfather was sent there to set up a Chinese branch of Toyota, then a textile company. "My father has old pictures of the first Mr. Toyota driving his Rolls-Royce down the Bund." When the Japanese invaded in 1937, the fighting left the international commune a ghetto, and his family moved back to Nagasaki. "When We Were Orphans "raises the bar for the literary mystery. Though more complex than much of Ishiguro's earlier work, which has led to mixed reactions, it was published internationally (his work has been published in 28 languages) and was a "New York Times" bestseller.Hide
Description:Very good. Appearance of only slight previous use. Cover and...Very good. Appearance of only slight previous use. Cover and binding show a little wear. All pages are undamaged with potentially only a few, small markings. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Thriftbooks. Read. Recycle and Reuse!
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Description:Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use...Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices.
Description:Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and...Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
Description:Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and...Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
Description:Near Fine+ (Book Condition) AS NEW. An excellent copy. Very...Near Fine+ (Book Condition) AS NEW. An excellent copy. Very slight lean to spine. Text clean, binding strong. [Montreal Books rating system: 1. Fine; 2. Near Fine; 3. Very Good; 4. Good; 5. Fair. ]
Description:Very Good in N/a jacket. Trade Paperback Christopher Banks looks...Very Good in N/a jacket. Trade Paperback Christopher Banks looks into the disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai which happened when he was a small boy. Very slight bending of cover ow appears unread.
I personally liked the book because of the details used to portray the characters. However, the beginning of the book was a drag. Only the ending of the book was decent.
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Another highly unusual narrative taking place before the break out of WWII in China as the Nanking area invaded by the Japanese. Christopher is a detective whose parents were kidnapped in China when he was a child. He returns as an adult to solve their abduction, and the answer is most unexpected. ...
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