The Remains of the Day

Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, sets out on a short motoring holiday to visit Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper he once worked beside. Along the way he recalls his career, his pride in dignity and his employer's disastrous political sympathies.

Ishiguro's brilliance lies in what Stevens does not say. He narrates with impeccable propriety while the reader sees the love he never admitted and the mistakes he cannot face. The restraint makes the emotion hit harder.

It is slow and quiet, and it asks for patience. But the final scene on a pier at dusk is among the saddest, gentlest endings in modern fiction.