When We Were Orphans

Kazuo Ishiguro is a well-known British novelist, short story-writer and a screenwriter. He was born in Osaka, Japan, and moved to Britain at the of age five. When We Were Orphans, one of Ishiguro’s many books, is an emotional, detailed, and somewhat mysterious book. The New York Times Book Review mentions When We Were Orphans as “[Ishiguro’s] fullest achievement yet.”

I bought this book solely on its title. When We Were Orphans tells the emotional journey of a successful detective trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Shanghai many years ago. The main character, Christopher Banks, is an English boy growing up at the International Settlement in Shanghai in the early 1900s. Christopher’s childhood is a happy and simple one. However, his life changes unexpectedly when his father, an opium merchant, disappears. A week following the disappearance of Christopher’s father, his mother also disappears. It is Philip, a former lodger at Christopher's parents’ residence, who knows exactly what happened to his parents. Philip becomes Christopher's "father figure" and decides that Christopher's life would be best in England.

Fast forward, Christopher becomes a very successful detective in London. Through social events, he meets Sarah, who also became an orphan at the age of ten. Sarah and Christopher seem to understand each other well. When We Were Orphans tells how their relationship develops and how it suddenly sadly ends. Christopher never marries, but he adopts an orphan girl named Jennifer. He then decides to go back to Shanghai on a mission to solve his parents’ mysterious disappearance, though to no avail. As it turns out, Christopher’s mission was inconclusive partially due to Philip's wrongdoing to his parents as a Communist double agent. How Christopher reacts to the complicated truth and how he finally meets his mother who suffers from memory loss and doesn't recognize him are fully described in the book.

I enjoyed reading When We Were Orphans. However, the ending of the book left me unsatisfied. All in all, When We Were Orphans offers a taste of how an individual deals with the past in order to move forward with the present.

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