4 min readJun 18, 2026 09:40 PM IST
First published on: Jun 18, 2026 at 06:47 PM IST
Kazuo Ishiguro fans will be delighted to know that a new novel by the Nobel Prize winning author is set to hit bookstores on March 9, 2027. The novel, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger, his first in six years after his 2021 dystopian science fiction Klara and the Sun, will be a spy caper.
Ishiguro, who is one of the most popular authors of our time, is known for his atmospheric genre-bending works, including science fiction and fantasy, that explore memory and human connection. He is known for experimenting with different genres.
The novel unfolds in London in 1938, and follows the story of Richard Hadley, who has a chance encounter with Miss Lambert after a music hall matinee. He follows Miss Lambert to a secret conference, where she tells him that she is on the verge of a breakthrough. Convinced she is being pursued by hostile forces, Hadley sets off after her, following her to first to a grand countryside hotel, then aboard a train bound for Scotland. Two other Ishiguro books When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day have been set in the 1930s.
Two other Ishiguro books When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day have been set in the 1930s.
UK publisher Faber describes the book as “an exquisite entertainment in which nothing is quite as it seems.” One early line of dialogue released by Penguin Random House hints at the novel’s playful, tone: “At first, I took you for a charming jewel thief.”
A new twist to Ishiguro’s work
Angus Cargill, Ishiguro’s longtime editor and Faber’s Publishing director, said the novel draws on the author’s lifelong passions outside literature. “Drawing on his love of music, art and Golden Age cinema, this disarming and memorable caper offers a delicious new twist to Ishiguro’s work,” Cargill said. “We can’t wait for readers to climb aboard.”
Knopf Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jordan Pavlin, who will be publishing the book in the United States, told the Associated Press that the book as a blend of spy fiction and the kind of wit PG Wodehouse was known for. “One feels palpable joy in the exploits of the novel’s characters, in their innate goodness and irresistible acts of heroism, in the innocence and vivaciousness that literally has them bursting into song,” Pavlin said. “I defy any reader to resist Miss Lambert’s charms.”
Born in Nagasaki in 1954, Ishiguro moved to Britain at the age of five and has gone on to become one of the most celebrated novelists of his generation. His honours include the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize, and his work has been translated into more than 50 languages, selling millions of copies worldwide.
Beyond fiction, Ishiguro also has screenwriting credits for Living (2022), which earned both Academy Award and BAFTA nominations. Several of his novels have been adapted for the screen, including The Remains of the Day (1993), Never Let Me Go (2010) and A Pale View of Hills (2025), with a film version of Klara and the Sun due for release in October 2026.
Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger is available for pre-order now ahead of its March 2027 publication.
Kazuo Ishiguro's Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger. 
Two other Ishiguro books When We Were Orphans and The Remains of the Day have been set in the 1930s.
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