Nobel Prizewinner Kazuo Ishiguro writes song lyrics
One item on a page of new books caught my eye – a new work by Novel Prizewinner Kazuo Ishiguro entitled The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain. The last work I’d read by him was The Buried Giant, something of a early medieval story set not long after the age of King Arthur’s reign. I loved the story, so I went looking to find out more about this new work.
Ishiguro was born in Japan but raised and educated in Britain. He’s likely best known for two works that out-British the British – Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day (which won the Booker Prize in 1989). But among many other books, he’s written stories set in Japan, delved into crime fiction (When We Were Orphans), and most recently written Klara and the Sun, which might be defined as literary science fiction.
Kazuo Ishiguro
And now he’s written song lyrics, many of which look suspiciously like poetry.
In the introduction, Ishiguro explains that while he’s known for stories, he started out by writing songs. In fact, he’d written more than 100 songs by the time his first novel, A Pale View of the Hills, was published when he was 27. He goes on to explain how songwriting influenced his fiction and how he wrote.
In 1999, he became a fan of American jazz singer Stacey Kent when she released her album “The Tender Trap.” In 2002, he mentioned one of her songs in a radio interview, and that led to her record company asking him to write liner notes for a new album. Not long after, Ishiguro and his wife Lorna met Stacey Kent and her husband Jim Tomlinson. One thing led to another, as they say, and Ishiguro and Tomlinson collaborated on a number of song lyrics over an extended period.
One of those 16 songs furnished the title for this new work: “The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain.” You can listen to the song on You Tube here, but here is an excerpt of the lyrics:
Well, I’ve packed our bags, I know I should have
consulted you,
But pretending to bargain would only have insulted you
So do just as I say
We’ll go away today
The fire still burns whatever you may claim
Let’s be young again
If only for the weekend
Let’s be fools again
Let’s fall into the deep end
Let’s do once more
All those things we did before
The summer we crossed Europe in the rain.
Like the title song, most of the songs are about romance and travel. In addition to Europe, Ishiguro also includes lyrics for songs about Casablanca, Macao, Scotland, and Indochina. As soon as I saw the title “Catherine in Indochine,” I knew what that song was about – French actress Catherine Deneuve starred in the movie Indochine (1992) about the beginnings of the Vietnamese uprising against French colonial occupation in the 1930s. I’m a long-time fan of Catherine Deneuve, ever since she starred with Jack Lemmon in April Fools in 1969.
I should note that the book is more than just a collection of lyrics. It’s an art object in itself – Ishiguro’s words and beautiful illustrations by Italian comics artist Bianca Bagnarelli. The lyrics and illustrations turn the work into something of a small-size art book. It includes a QR code at the end so that you can listen to the songs.
In The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain, Ishiguro returns to his songwriting roots. The book is a delight. He has artfully combined words, illustrations, music, and movies into one satisfying experience.
Related:
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant
Photo by J3SSL33, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young
How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
- The Poetry of Luci Shaw - December 9, 2025
- “Everybody in Amsterdam Speaks English.” Not. - December 4, 2025
- Poets and Poems: Hedy Habra and “Under Brushstrokes” - December 2, 2025
Leave a Reply