The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence.

Here is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman, " Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness, " and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

It is the summer of 1956, and the aging butler of Darlington Hall takes a rare holiday. But it is a journey that will also take him deep into his past. The Remains of the Day is a remarkable story: a man's exploration of his own life, and his heart-breaking attempt to make sense of it.

The story of blind devotion and repressed love between a fanatically proper butler and a high-spirited, strong-minded young housekeeper employed by a British lord who is unwittingly a Nazi dupe.

"Inglaterra, julio de 1956. Stevens, el narrador, fue durante treinta años mayordomo de Lord Darlington, quien murió hace tres años, y su propiedad pertenece ahora a un norteamericano. Su nuevo patrón regresará por unas semanas a su país, y le ha ofrecido al mayordomo el auto para que disfrute de unas vacaciones. Y Stevens se embarca en un viaje por el país rumbo a Weymouth, donde vive la señora Benn, antigua ama de llaves de Darlington Hall. Jornada a jornada, Ishiguro desplegará ante el lector una novela perfecta de luces y claroscuros para desvelar una realidad mucho más amarga que los amables paisajes que el mayordomo deja atrás. Porque Stevens averigua que Lord Darlington fue un miembro de la clase dirigente inglesa que se dejó seducir por el fascismo y conspiró activamente para conseguir una alianza entre Inglaterra y Alemania. Y descubre, y también el lector, que hay algo peor incluso que haber servido a un hombre indigno."--Amazon.com. Summary from English version: The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him-- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel-- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence.