Kazuo Ishiguro announces 1930s spy caper to be published next year

Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger is the first novel from the Nobel laureate since 2021’s Klara and the Sun and draws on the author’s love of music, art and Golden Age cinema

A new novel by Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro is set to be published in March next year.

Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger, announced by his UK publisher Faber, is a spy caper. Set in 1938, the novel follows Richard Hadley as he encounters the enigmatic Miss Lambert, and follows her to a conference at a hotel in Devon, and then on to a Scotland-bound train, where he encounters a school friend and a former Tory minister, among others.

Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger is Ishiguro’s ninth novel. “Drawing on his love of music, art and Golden Age cinema, this is a delicious new twist to Ishiguro’s work,” said Faber publishing director Angus Cargill.

Ishiguro – who was born in Japan and moved to Britain aged five – is the author of the bestselling novels Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, which won the Booker prize in 1989.

The novel, published by Penguin’s Alfred A Knopf in the US, is Ishiguro’s first since his 2021 book Klara and the Sun. His most recent book is The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain, a collection of song lyrics the author wrote for the American jazz singer Stacey Kent.

An adaptation of Klara and the Sun starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams is set to be released this October. Past film adaptations of Ishiguro’s works include his debut A Pale View of Hills (2025), Never Let Me Go (2010) and The Remains of the Day (1993).

• Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber & Faber, £18.99). To support the Guardian, pre-order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.