

97. The Remains of the Day
Duty Shapes A Life
- The Remains of the Day follows Stevens, a butler, reflecting on service, politics and a lost chance at personal connection.
- Ishiguro uses a road journey to surface memory, duty and the limits of selfhood.
Voice Is The Novel's Engine
- Listeners praised the assured, controlled prose as a major strength of the novel.
- The reading clip illustrates Stevens' precise, formal voice and the humour tucked into restrained narration.
Film Casting Warps Reading
- Laura admits she pictured Anthony Hopkins as Stevens despite never seeing the film, which affected her reading.
- That mental casting made it harder for her to form original impressions of the character.


























Join us as we discuss The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a modern classic, 1989 Booker Prize winner and the author is also the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature but none of this led Laura to hold back, calling it 'dull' and incredibly slow reading. But, of course, hers is not the only voice, so listen in to find out what Kate thought, and what Laura's book club thought. We've also got some book recommendations for your next book club read.
Booklist
Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Amsterdam and On Chesil Beach by Ian McKewan
Staying On by Paul Scott.
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