March 28, 2015. 5:00 pm. Buy tickets here.
At the Laemmle Music Hall 3. 9036 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of some of the great books of the past 25 years, including The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. Whether exploring loyalty and the complexities of master/servant relationships in Remains of the Day, or the difficult nature of trust and forgiveness in an elite English boarding school in Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro quietly and stealthily leads us to the most unexpected endings. The landscape seems familiar, and his storytelling lulls us into a comfort zone that is always jarred by twists and turns. The same is true for his new novel, the critically acclaimed and magnificent The Buried Giant.
The Buried Giant occupies an England of the distant past— when monsters and fairies roamed the earth—right alongside the very human heroes of the novel. Ogres are just part of the territory; the setting of this novel has its monstrous creatures, and we have our own. The story is almost a fable; and its otherworldly creatures are simply ancillary to the story of Axl and Beatrice, two elderly people, whose struggles and love are all too human, on a journey to see their long-lost son. Fraught with challenges, Axl and Beatrice continue on their odyssey in a time and place that’s at once harrowing but also not so unrecognizable to us. The journey will be tough, threatening and ultimately so beautiful and moving that we dare you not to weep.
For a hint of the treat you’re in for at our program with Kazuo Ishiguro, see this short video of Ishiguro discussing his new novel.
In conversation with Ned Martel, a former editor at the Washington Post, and now a television producer and writer, whose credits include Glee, American Horror Story, and The Normal Heart .