Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

A gentle set of five stories in which little happens but lives change, the lives of Ishiguro's characters intersect with those of others triggering series of reflections and reverberations through memory, past and future. The stories are beautifully constructed around major life changes narrated in the past tense, striking a minor key of regret and loss. Relationships are pivoting and coming to their closing acts, musicians are recognised by one character but unknown, forgotten by all the others, once shining, glorious and famous, now faded like old photographs. These are stories that haunt and echo, like a melody that awakes memories.