Japanese-born British writer Kazuo Ishiguro has won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The 62-year-old has been hailed by the Swedish Academy as a writer “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.
Ishiguro has authored eight books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages.
His most famous novels, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were adapted into highly acclaimed films. He was made an OBE in 1995.
The Briton beat favourites for the award, including Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Japanese Haruki Murakami and Canadian Margaret Atwood.
The Academy also praised Ishiguro’s writing as being “marked by a carefully restrained mode of expression, independent of whatever events are taking place”.
The Literature Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1901, and comes with a £832,000 cash prize for the winner.
In the words of founder Alfred Nobel, the award is given to authors who “shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”
Ishiguro is the 114th winner of the award.
