The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Hobbies, Leisure, Books, Arts

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“A masterpiece I don’t fully understand—and don’t need to.” This week’s book is The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, a bold, baffling, and darkly funny novel that has confounded and enchanted readers since its publication in 1995. Joining us to explore it is Chris Chibnall, award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and now novelist, best known for Broadchurch and Doctor Who, and author of the new detective novel Death at the White Hart. Written in the wake of Ishiguro’s Booker-winning The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled follows Ryder, a famous pianist, through an unnamed European city where nothing is quite as it seems. We talk about Ishiguro’s decision to “go electric” with this daring experiment in narrative structure and tone; how the novel grew from critical confusion to cult classic; and why its unresolved tensions and emotional obliqueness are part of its power. For anyone who’s ever had to perform while still in their dressing gown, this one’s for you. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Backlisted, the podcast which gives new life to old books.
0:09.3	The book featured in today's show is The Unconsoled, certainly the longest and perhaps the most
0:14.5	controversial novel by the Nobel Prize winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro.
0:24.0	I'm John Mitchinson, the publisher at Boundless.
0:26.2	And I'm Andy Miller, author of the Year of Reading Dangerously.
0:29.7	And today we welcome a new guest to Backlisted.
0:32.7	Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chris Chibnop.
0:36.8	Very nice to be here. Thank you. We dub on some more
0:41.2	applause because that very much sounded like a stadium or a middle Eastern European town.
0:48.6	I'd like an echoing concert hall, please. Chris Chibnall is a BAFTA, Royal Television Society, Broadcasting Press Guild and Peabody Award-winning screenwriter, executive producer, playwright and now novelist.
1:02.4	His television work includes Broadchurch, remade as Grace Point in the US, and Malatera in France.
1:09.9	Is that right, Chris?
1:12.8	Maltaire. Very nice. I don't know,
1:17.9	Andy. I mean, it sounded great. Bad land. It's bad land in Spanish or Italian, isn't it?
1:23.1	Yeah, set in Corsica. It was amazing. He was the showrunner on Doctor Who, casting Jodie Whitaker as the first female doctor. And he's also worked on the great train robbery, United, Torchwood,
1:29.7	and Life on Mars. His debut novel, Death at the White Heart, has just been published by Penguin
1:37.0	Michael Joseph in the UK and will be published on the 10th of June by Viking Books in the USA.
1:47.9	Is today actual publication day, Chris, or was that yesterday?
1:54.1	It was yesterday, but we convene at the end of an absolutely bonkers week.
1:57.2	And you are the headline act, the climactic act.
1:59.7	You know, you've had David Tennant as a support act.
2:00.9	Jenny Godfrey did an event for us in the southwest of England this week. I'm here to tell you that the Unconsoled is the most
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