A bright, financially comfortable young man begins a career as a famous "sleuth" or detective in London, England in 1930. He meets people in all walks of life, obviously through carrying out his work and in his daily contacts. Since most crimes are quite solvable, his fame begins to spread throughout the upper echelons of British society. However, in true Ishiguro style (The Unconsoled, The Remains of the Day, An Artist of the Floating World, and A Pale View of the Hills), the pride, pitfalls, and poignancies of this society are conveyed by the narrator in colorful and comic scenes that will long remain in the reader's mind.

The plot begins to thicken as more and more of Christopher's memories emerge of his younger years in Shanghai. Parallel curiosity grows with his crime-solving skills. People appear and begin to make comments about his Shanghai years. What do they know? Why was everyone so vague at the time his parents disappeared in Shanghai and why are several characters, including seductive Sylvia, so interested in his past and present life?

Christopher earns enough money and gained energy to begin his search in earnest. We travel with him to pre-WW II China and learn of the plots and subplots into which his parents were entwined. Here we see the stark realities of China as she moves from an imperial dynasty to Nationalist and then Communist governments. It isn't a pretty picture at all, yet Ishiguro manages to captivate his reading audience into traveling the road with as much fortitude and passion as the narrator. We mature with Christopher as he discards those who would "use" him for political and romantic purposes.

Finally, we share his pain and acceptance as he discovers the separate path his parents took over two decades earlier. Powerfully poignant moments of betrayal mixed with love present an Asian world where individuals decide to control the world of politics and economics, leaving the litter behind of anyone standing in the way.

There is a subtlety in this wonderful novel that indirectly portrays the multiple sides of human nature. A young man grows up to weave the ideal and reality into a single vision, leaving this reader anew with awe of the mystery of human and historical motives and actions.

Ishiguro is a highly talented writer who continues to pen works of reality and illusion, sparking our deepest yearnings to make a difference in the ever-changing personal and global realities around us.