A Pale View of Hills* - Kazuo Ishiguro

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780571162833-0 - By the author of Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, Artist of the Floating World, and When We Were Orphans, this is the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in London whose eldest daughter has just commited suicide. In dealing with the tragedy, Etsuko is reminded of her last summer in Nagasaki - presumably 1945 when the bomb was dropped. Throughout the narrative hints are dropped about Etsuko's prior life and her struggle with identity and finding happiness in a culture embroiled in duty. All of Ishiguro's novels hinge on the idea of memory - what we choose to remember, how we remember, and how what we remember shapes how we live our lives and the paths we choose. A Pale View of Hills is Ishiguro's first novel - it's clear he is still playing with and developing his own ideas of memory - and I did not find it as engaging as When We Were Orphans or his latest Never Let Me Go. But, despite the difficulties of the subject matter, I find Ishiguro's writing very soothing, and I highly recommend everything I have read by him, including this one.

(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)