A new Ishiguro novel heads to 1930s England, with spies, music and wit

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NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro's next novel is set in a time and place familiar to fans of his classic “The Remains of the Day”: England in the 1930s.

Alfred A. Knopf announced Tuesday that “Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger” will be published March 9. The novel is built around an encounter between the mysterious title character and a music hall aficionado in London in 1938, the year before World War II. Knopf Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jordan Pavlin describes the book as a blend of spy fiction and the kind of wit P.G. Wodehouse was known for.

“One feels palpable joy in the exploits of the novel’s characters, in their innate goodness and irresistible acts of heroism, in the innocence and vivaciousness that literally has them bursting into song,” Pavlin said in a statement. “I defy any reader to resist Miss Lambert’s charms.”

Ishiguro, awarded the Nobel in 2017, is also known for the novels “Never Let Me Go” and “An Artist in the Floating World.” Taika Waititi's film adaptation of his “Klara and the Sun,” starring Amy Adams and Jenna Ortega, is scheduled for October.