'You seldom read a novel that so convinces you it is extending the possibilities of fiction.' Sunday Times England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return. 'Ishiguro is the best and most original writer of his generation, and When We Were Orphans could be by no other writer. It haunts the mind. It moves to tears.' Mail on Sunday 'When We Were Orphans discloses a writer not only near the height of his powers but in a league all of his own.' Independent 'His fullest achievement yet.' New York Times Review of Books