The British novelist is obviously a terrific choice for the Nobel Prize. People who like to read into the behind-the-scenes politics of prizes will likely be speculating that Ishiguro is a safe and uncontroversial choice after last year's polarizing selection of Bob Dylan.

But no matter what the reasoning behind the award, Ishiguro is a deserving winner. I know a lot of booksellers and librarians who consider him to be their favorite novelist. The Remains of the Day remains his greatest achievement, but his dystopian Never Let Me Go is perhaps his most haunting book — an elegy for the self, a story about identity and love and morality in an age where the technological hum in the background has slowly increased to deafening proportions.