Cover of The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989

British and Japanese novelist, born 1954. Won the Costa Novel Award in 1986 and the Booker Prize in 1989.

The Remains of the Day is a 1989 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It won the Booker Prize in 1989.

Essential
  • Prize Winner

On 6 of the 20 lists it was eligible for.

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At a glance

Author
Kazuo Ishiguro
First published
1989
Length
272 pages (UK paperback)
Awards
Genre
Literary fiction, Class and society, Psychological

Is The Remains of the Day worth reading?

6 of the 20 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Booker Prize and Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian).

ListPlaceOriginal
100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019)ListedSee the list
Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 1989)WinnerSee the list
Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026)No. 31See the list
The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026)No. 24See the list
The 100 greatest British novels (BBC Culture, 2015)No. 18See the list
The Big Jubilee Read (BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, 2022)ListedSee the list

Best edition of The Remains of the Day

The edition we link to is the Faber & Faber paperback (2010), 272 pages.

Publisher
Faber & Faber (paperback, 2010)
Pages
272
ISBN
9780571258246

How critics, prizes and readers rate The Remains of the Day

Prize juries and readers rate it about equally: it earned 33% on prize lists and 29% on readers' and booksellers' lists, against 28% on critics' lists.

Critics
28%
Prizes
33%
Readers and booksellers
29%

Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work

Books like The Remains of the Day

If you liked The Remains of the Day, try Never Let Me Go, An Artist of the Floating World or Klara and the Sun.

Lists used on this page