This book. Wow! Ishiguro writes in such a meditative style in many of his books I’ve read. When We Were Orphans combines that same meditative style with moments of fast moving plot, all amidst the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War. There is a haunting feeling to this book, a melancholic haunting, that doesn’t really settle in until you get into the book a bit. 

This book is so brilliantly written. Part of the brilliant writing is the structure of the story that Ishiguro presents us. We go into the story thinking there’s a mystery to be solved. So as we read, we are right there with the main character trying to unravel the mystery. Then Ishiguro throws us a major plot twist. 

Yet the book is about so much more than the mystery. There is a deep exploration of the soul in the pages of this book, from the main character to his friend to his parents to his uncle to other secondary characters. The concept of memory is a big theme – what do we remember and how do we remember, do memories reflect full reality or do memories change themselves from the reality of what was? 

Ishiguro also uses alternate timelines through the median of the main character sharing things from the past. This is a set up I often like in books when it’s well done. And Ishiguro certainly did it well! This is definitely a book I want to read again!