Kazuo Ishiguro writes poetic novels about eccentric characters in England through the 20th and into the

21st century. Japanese-born, he came to England at the age of 5 and adopted the language and culture of his new country. Still, in his novels one detects a sense of loss and longing for old worlds, dying traditions and fear of unexplained pasts, as well as menacing, and occasionally bizarre, uncertain futures. If you like Ishiguros writing you might like the following author writing, dwelling on other than their original cultures, or, conversely, utopian or dystopian ones.

Read-alikes for Kazuo Ishiguro

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaids Tale: a futuristic parable set in Gilead, formerly The United States, post- taken over by a religious fundamentalist group. Told in first person by a handmaid, functioning in this new order as bearer children for childless people. A disturbing-content page turner, fascinating character study P. D. James, The Children of Men: Set in England in 2021, bringing up the chilling possibility of all women of the world becoming infertile in the course of one night, an irrevocable situation, told by of the last generation of men as we know it. Chilling, lingering, spare in verbal descriptions, mesmerizing in content. Ian McEwan, Atonement: looking back at her 84 years of life, Briony Tallis recalls her childhood in an old-fashioned, upper gentry family between the two world wars. A rumor spread by 11-year-old Briony in 1935 has dire repercussions on her various family members lives and, consequentially, her own. Captive in style and content, it focuses on the power of words, writing and memory. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse:: one summer in the 1920s finds Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey and their eight children in Hebrides, Scotland. A promise of a trip to a lighthouse across the bay becomes a fable of family discrepancies, relationship and broken promises. Stream-of-consciousness genre style, intricate writing, slow read, beautiful prose, delicate character study. Gentle and sad. Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited:: Infantry captain Charles Ryder, happening upon Brideshead mansion during WWII, recalls, in a flashback his long-lost friendship with aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, from their youth in Oxford over 25 years. Beautifully, if slow paced, written, drawing on unlikely friendships, old-world England, Catholicism, tradition and decadence. E. M. Forester, A Passage to India:: a visit of two English women to India during the height of British Raj results in Ignorance of local customs, clashing with locals reputation and cultural habits differences. Beautifully written, fast-paced, culturally exploratory. Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet (The Jewel in the Crown): long saga of English Rule of India during 1940s anti-British riots. Detailed in character study, beautifully, if oldfashioned written, fascinating in terms of Indian and British imperialist cultures. A. B. Yehoshua, Mr. Mani (translated from the Hebrew to English by Hillel Halkin): 5 generations of Jewish family, from Turkey in mid-18th century to 1990s Jerusalem. Going from contemporary back, it draws on main events in Jewish history. Though some is lost in translation, it still is a fascinating study of Jewish history, formed as a 250-year family saga. Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness (translated from the Hebrew to English by Nicholas de Lange): a haunting biographical account, beautifully translated, by one of Israels most famed authors. Through a journey into the authors family, childhood and growing up in the shadow of a mothers suicide, one is exposed to pre-WWII rich EasternEuropean Jewish life and their final demolition, pre-independence Palestine and early state of Israel years. Lyrical prose, fascinating childhood and state-in-the-making accounts. Zadie Smith, White Teeth:: 3 generations of lower-class English, Pakistani and Jamaican families and their intricate relationship in 1999 London. Capturing writing style, humorous, ironic, fast-paced and full of fabulous eccentric characters.

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient:: a love story between a French nurse and an Indian explosives expert during WWII also recounts an unlikely love story between an Englishwoman and a POW Hungarian aristocrat. Poetic writing style, beautifully-drawn characters, a page turning saga of unlikely love and loss in times of war and destruction. Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated: a journey of a New York Jewish boy to Ukraine in 2001 brings up unlikely family past histories, mythical Shtetl life, love, intrigue, sex and survival. By using clever linguistic techniques the author unfolds a beautiful, allegory his ancestors town and their fate after the Holocaust. Tragicomic, cynical, clever, fascinating and full of fantasy-like characters, hearts and imagination captive.