9780060824891

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A masterful novel from one of the
most admired writers of our time.

Christopher Banks, an English boy born in early-20th-century Shanghai, is orphaned at age nine when both his mother and father disappear under suspicious circumstances. He grows up to become a renowned detective, and more than 20 years later, returns to Shanghai to solve the mystery of the disappearances.

Within the layers of the narrative told in Christopher's precise, slightly detached voice are revealed what he can't, or wont, see: that the simplest desires -- a child's for his parents, a man's for understanding -- may give rise to the most complicated truths.

A feat of narrative skill and soaring imagination, When We Were Orphans is Kazuo Ishiguro at his brilliant best.

Performed by John Lee

"WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS is as intricately plotted as a conventional mystery novel....[It] will linger in the mind as an often fascinating, imaginative work of surpassing intelligence and taste."

Joyce Carol Oates, Times Literary Supplement, 03/31/2000

"Ishiguro has chosen a careful Edwardian prose for his detective-hero; but he seems reluctant to establish a sharp or noticeable comic distance from it. It's like P. G. Wodehouse without jokes. His story insists that we sympathize with his orphans; his style refuses to let us. The result is an uneasy calm between crosscurrents. [I]t goes without saying that the novel is thoroughly artful and well orchestrated. But it does feel as though a distinguished author has found himself in the wrong lane here...."

Robert Winder, Literary Review, April 2000

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