Os Despojos do Dia, de Kazuo Ishiguro

I haven't read many books by Ishiguro - just A Pale View of the Hills and Never Let me Go - but liked them immensely, especially the second. His writing is extremely beautiful, in a peculiarly restrained way that makes it so much stronger. And this is another perfect example of his masterly writing (I read it in Portuguese, but I found the translation very good, one can hear the English original in some way). I watched the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson many years ago, and it's an excellent adaptation, but of course the book is much more nuanced and complete. It's a sad and nostalgic story, about what could have been and the alienation of class and job sense of duty, beautiful, and that leaves us wondering about the fleetness of life.