This study of contemporary British writer Kazuo Ishiguro and his work explores the author's uses of memory in narrative, particularly the effects of memory on reliability of point of view, manipulations of desire, and how human beings reinterpret worlds from which they feel estranged. All of his works are eloquent expressions of people struggling with the silence of pain and the awkward stutters of confusion and loss. This book examines his subtle and ironic portrayals of people in 'emotional bereavement,' and it situates Ishiguro as an important new 'international novelist' by looking at his constructions of personal and political histories. Best known for the Booker-prize winning and Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro continues his formal experimentation in narrative voice with subsequent work and emphasizes the necessary, yet 'futile spirit', which envelops many of his characters.