Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Kazuo Ishigurohas won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature. TheJapanese-born British author was acknowledged for being a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."

The prize is worth the equivalent of about $1.2 million Cdn.

Born in Nagasaki, he moved to England with his family when he was five years old. His passion in university was rock music, and he says that it's only because he didn't make it as a singer and guitarist that he turned his hand to writing. He met with success right from his very first novel,A Pale View of Hills, published when he was just 27.

Ishigurowent on to writeseven more books, most notably TheRemains of the Day in 1989, which won the Man Booker Prize. His 2005 novelNever Let Me Gowas named by Time as one ofthe 100 greatest English-language novels since the inception of the magazine. Hismost recent novel is 2015's TheBuried Giant.

• Kazuo Ishiguro on love, pixies and Camelot

Ishigurohas also written screenplays and short fiction. He was named to theOrder of the British Empire in 1995.

"He's a very interesting writer in many ways," said Sara Danius, the academy's permanent secretary. "I would say that if you mix Jane Austen her comedy of manners and her psychological insights with Kafka, then I think you have Ishiguro."

Ishigurospoke to Eleanor Wachtel on Writers & Companyin 2015 about The Buried Giant.

The other 2017 Nobel Prize winners include gravitational wave scientistsRainer Weiss, Barry C. BarishandKip S. Thorne for physics,Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael RosbashandMichael W. Young for physiology or medicine for their work on circadianrhythms and biochemistsJacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank andRichard Hendersonfor chemistry.

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Oct. 6, 2017.

The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.

Last year, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.Canadian Alice Munro was recognized in 2013.