STOCKHOLM - The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017 is awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world", the Swedish Academy announced in Stockholm on Thursday.

Author Kazuo Ishiguro photographed during an interview with Reuters in New York, U.S. April 20, 2005.?[Photo/Agencies]

Kazuo Ishiguro has been a full-time author ever since his first book, A Pale View of Hills (1982). The themes Ishiguro is most associated with are already present here: memory, time, and self-delusion, said the Swedish Academy in his biobibliographical notes.

Ishiguro's writings are marked by a carefully restrained mode of expression, independent of whatever events are taking place. At the same time, his more recent fiction contains fantastic features, the notes added.

"His novel, as in several others, we also find musical influences," the notes said, adding that apart from his eight books, Ishiguro has also written scripts for film and television.

Kazuo Ishiguro was born on Nov. 8, 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan. The family moved to the United Kingdom when he was five years old. In the late 1970s, Ishiguro graduated in English and Philosophy at the University of Kent, and then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

This year's prize is 9 million SEK (1.1 million US dollars).