Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled

The novel’s central character, Ryder, arrives in an unnamed city with very little apparent recollection of what he's doing there. There's some sort of performance he's agreed to give, and maybe a speech... but what is the crisis that seems to be gripping the city, and why does everyone keep making demands on his already limited time? Is Ryder suffering from some sort of amnesia, or is the whole thing a dream or a deeply surreal trip? When doors start leading directly from the city to the countryside, and when twenty minute conversations take place in the space of an elevator ride, you begin to realise this is no ordinary story.