Remains of the Day

This is Kazuo Ishiguro's most well-known novel. It is told in the first person by an English butler named Stevens. He works at a mansion in the English countryside called Darlington Hall. His narrative focuses on the events that happened years before when he worked for a man named Darlington, who, as is revealed as the story goes on, had ties with the Nazi party in England. He also spends a lot of time ruminating on what qualities the perfect butler possesses. A lot of his thoughts about this are unintentionally funny.
When I heard the description of this book, I was doubtful that I would enjoy it. But it's actually really good. I would even go so far as to say it's one of the best books I've ever read. Ishiguro has a talent for writing that is hard to match. The pace is slow, but it fits the tone of the book very well and the book is still able to remain interesting.
There are a lot of themes throughout, like how memory works. Stevens is an unreliable narrator who often omits important details. He is shown as someone who remembers events more as he wants them to be than how they actually are.
Stevens also represents English repression. Throughout the novel, he is in love with a woman named Miss Kenton but he refuses to act on or acknowledge it. He acts this way because he believes that the importance of his professionalism as a butler exceeds all other things. He sacrifices any type of personal life for his job.
By the end of the book, Stevens realizes that perhaps his devotion to Darlington was misplaced and that he has wasted many years of his life as a servant. Thus, it is up to him how he will spend the rest of his life, or the remains of the day, as it were.
The novel was adapted into an okay movie version in 1993 with Anthony Hopkins as Stevens.