Set between 1930s London and Shanghai and recollections of pre-war Shanghai as a child, Christopher Banks, a renowned detective tries to solve his first and greatest mystery - the disappearance of his parents.
I am really taken with the work of Ishiguro from reading Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. This book carries similar qualities from his previous work but didn't give me the same level of satisfaction. The characters were not as accessible and as much as I loved the understated romance and the slow burning relationship between Christopher and Sarah I found that it was almost too muted.
As ever, the scene is set extremely well. The vista of war torn Shanghai with its abandoned, destructed buildings and winding never ending tiny streets certainly conveys a sense of claustrophobia that is felt in the second half of the novel when Christopher is taken on a destructive journey and a complete fall from reality. This works well in comparison to the rigid, contained world of the English gentry.The novel leads you from a happy existence as a child in Shanghai, to 1930s London full of evening balls and dinner parties to a state of complete confusion and nonsense led to by obsession. Ishiguro's description never fails throughout the novel, but at times, the narrative does let it down.
At its heart this is a story of childhood innocence, the struggle to come to terms with past trauma and the need to let go and live life. The delusional and detached nature of the narrator certainly adds to the strength of the voice but also means the writing is not as accessible to the reader, especially towards the end of the novel.
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