23.
The Remains of the Day
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Because the anguish of unrequited love makes for
riveting reading.
An elderly English butler realizes too late what
his buttoned-up stoicism and dedication to his Nazi-sympathizer employer has
robbed him of: his chance for real love. This quiet, heart-piercing novel
showed us the cost of misplaced loyalties and missed opportunity, and reminded
us of the happiness we must claim for ourselves.
— Dawn Raffel
