Kazuo Ishiguro

A beautiful anniversary edition to mark twenty years of Kazuo Ishiguro's modern classic, in which he imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of 1990s England.

Narrated by Kathy H, as she tries to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, it is a story of love, friendship and memory, charged throughout with a sense of life's fragility.

Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Never Let Me Go

*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available to preorder* One of the most acclaimed novels of the 21st Century, from the Nobel Prize-winning author Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life. 'Exquisite.' Guardian 'A feat of imaginative sympathy.' New York Times What readers are saying: 'A book I will return to again and again, and one that keeps me thinking even after finishing it. 5/5 stars' 'I loved it, every single word of it.' 'It took me wholly by surprise.' 'Utterly beautiful.' 'Essentially perfect.'

smile??

I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight, caked in mud and distorted with fury, then I reached for his flailing arms and held on tight. He tried to shake me off, but I kept holding on, until he stopped shouting and I felt the fight go out of him. Then I realized he too had his arms around me. And we stood together like that, at the top of the field, for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, just holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us, tugging our clothes, and for a moment, it seemed like we were holding onto each other because that was the only way to stop us being swept away into the night.

People's opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to 

Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?

It was amazing really, the way the years seemed to melt away, and we were so easy with each other.

Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into anyone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.

Even the solitude, I've actually grown to quite like. That's not to say I'm not looking forward to a bit more companionship come the end of the year when I'm finished with all of this. But I do like the feeling of getting into my little car, knowing for the next couple of hours I'll have only the roads, the big grey sky and my daydreams for company.

You're no fool, and you can see that maybe me and Tommy, we might not be a couple forever. That's no tragedy. We were right for each other once. Whether we always will be, that's anyone's guess.

Our models were an irrelevance, a technical necessity for bringing us into the world, nothing more than that. It was up to each of us to make of our lives what we could.

In those early months, we'd somehow developed this idea that how well you were settling in at the Cottages — how well you were 

 — was somehow reflected by how many books you'd read.

[...] maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and — no matter how much we despised ourselves for it — unable quite to let each other go.

 we had sex with. Not just because of the diseases, but because, she said, "sex affects emotions in ways you'd never expect." We had to be extremely careful about having sex in the outside world, especially with people who weren't students, because out there sex meant all sorts of things. [...] And even though, as we knew, it was completely impossible for any of us to have babies, out there, we had to behave like them. We had to respect the rules and treat sex as something pretty special.

Thinking back now, I can see we were just at that age when we knew a few things about ourselves — about who we were, how we were different from our guardians, from the people outside — but hadn't yet understood what any of it meant. I'm sure somewhere in your childhood, you too had an experience like ours that day; similar if not in the actual details, then inside, in the feelings. Because it doesn't really matter how well your guardians try to prepare you: all the talks, videos, discussions, warnings, not of that can really bring it home. Not when you're eight years old, and you're all together in a place like Hailsham; when you've got guardians like the ones we had; when the gardeners and the delivery been joke and laugh with you and call you "sweetheart."

All the same, some of it must go in somewhere. It must go in, because by the time a moment like that comes along, there's a part of you that's been waiting. Maybe from as early as when you're five or six, there's been a whisper going at the back of your head, saying: "One day, maybe not so long from now, you'll get to know how it feels." So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realize that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you — of how you were brought into this world and why — and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and it suddenly shows you something else, something troubling and strange.

Paola Fernandes

Comovente e real, mesmo em uma realidade utópica. 

Um ótimo livro para quem gosta de explorar um mundo diferente com assuntos do nosso cotidiano. Exploramos no livro a esperança, os sonhos, o amadurecimento e o amor em um mundo onde as escolhas não podem ser tomadas, já que o caminho já foi traçado. 

É muito comovente a forma que o livro flui fazendo o leitor caminhar juntamente com os personagens até o clímax onde entendemos o objetivo da existência de cada personagem, depois de se apegarmos. Sinto que o livro tem uma repartição como um muro do: antes da descoberta e o pós – passamos a sentir as perdas e a mesma esperança que existia durante todo o livro, passa a ser nossa, como se assim como cada um dos personagens, tivessemos a expecativa de que no final, realmente fosse funcionar. 

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human. Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is. Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

Jiya

Has Keffers recruited you for his porn patrol? 

Clara Gauthier

I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how I think it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever. 

nica

“It might be just some trend that came and went,” I said. “But for us, it’s our life.”

“I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they’d once belonged to the sea. I think about how I read them, lying on my front in the grass on warm afternoons, my hair—which I was growing long then—always falling across my vision.”

Of course, the moment she was giving it to me, I didn’t know what sort of music it was, but I did know it wasn’t anything like Judy Bridgewater. Then again, almost immediately, I saw how Ruth wasn’t to know that—how to Ruth, who didn’t know the first thing about music, this tape might easily make up for the one I’d lost. And suddenly I felt the disappointment ebbing away and being replaced by a real happiness. We didn’t do things like hug each other much at Hailsham. But I squeezed one of her hands in both mine when I thanked her. She said: “I found it at the last Sale. I just thought it’s the sort of thing you’d like.” And I said that, yes, it was exactly the sort of thing.

“when we lost something precious, and we’d looked and looked and still couldn’t find it, then we didn’t have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we were grown up, and we were free to travel around the country, we could always go and find it again in Norfolk.”

A reunion with two childhood friends draws Kathy and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the English countryside, and a confrontation with the truth about their childhoods.

Helen 

I was thinking about the rubbish, the flapping plastic in the branches, the shore-line of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything Id ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until Id see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that- I didn't let it - and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was Supposed to be.

Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearva much as we might once have thought. Because somewhe underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the wotla around us, and - no matter how much we despised our selves for it - unable quite to let each other go.

Jillian Roberts

“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water trying to hold onto each other. Holding on as hard as they can. But in the end, it’s just too much. The current is too strong. They’ve got to let go; drift apart. That’s how I think it is with us.”

Anushree Taparia

that there are people out there, like Madame, who dominate our lives. don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you - of how you were brought into this world and why - and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, is a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.

almost dnf because of its stagnant storytelling but this is too good to put down  

Tina Villarete

Soory but i read Klara and the Sun earlier :’)

ceren koc

oh man how look at how the time has passed and how we've grown

- strikes some very intimate chords in my heart... i always come back to this novel with my own memories and some trauma's i struggle to unpack

- also, no one talks about this but it has quite a lot to say about how different people perceive the idea of intercourse. i enjoyed reading about that a lot

- the ishiguro gateway drug

- a big heaping plate of nostalgia and oh man how look at how the time has passed and how we've grown

- strikes some very intimate chords in my heart... i always come back to this novel with my own memories and some trauma's i struggle to unpack

- also, no one talks about this but it has quite a lot to say about how different people perceive the idea of intercourse. i enjoyed reading about that a lot

Slow start with a quiet, uncertain ending that has no answers, but reflective.

Cassandra Tang

lauren

so haunting... i suspect i will never read this again 

Jordan Chan 

For the entirety of reading the book I was waiting for a twist, a moment that explains their “origins”, but reached the end with nothing ! Plot was promising, but the whole story was stagnant from beginning to end. All that character building for again, nothing. Did not see the point in the narrator telling all those stories. 

gishelle

This book is a whole lot of nothing. I never DNF a book and about 50% through, I was highly considering it. 

Alicia Evans

It’s a book that brings out many emotions- you never really know how to feel but there’s always something there 

it’s all about the love man !! about humanity !! and the love is always there there will always be love !! such a character driven novel but i really loved it. definitely weird !! i love some gothic scifi !! anyway gonna go think about norfolk now

Found the majority of this book somewhat irritating to read as I’m not a huge fan of stream of consciousness writing and there was a lot of ambiguity for 90% of the book. The “twist” was not that shocking - I wanted a lot more information about the cloning process and how they got to Hailsham, as opposed to pandering about a “love” story. I didn’t really see any of the characters in a romantic relationship so that all felt forced and redundant. Overall concept is interesting but just think it should have delved into it differently.

Paige Paul

really got me thinking towards the end but it took me 3 weeks to get thru the book (maybe im just not a fan of the writing style) 

the last 50 pages of the book was its only saving grace. 200 pages of tireless mystery that didn’t dangle any carrots for one to continue. I bought this book brand new with my hard earned money and that was the only reason why I pushed through…

The anecdotes were scattered & messy. Probably the author’s intention to realistically mirror human’s recollection that often is messy and non-linear, but 200 pages of this mess, i couldn’t care less for the characters. So much so that when it attempts to highlight grey areas or ethical dilemmas, its effect fell short. 

I appreciate the constant hopelessness that this book portrays which inadvertently made the ending very predictable but very well written, it tugged at my heart strings. The nuances that this author attempts to highlight, children as a means to an end to cure cancer - though clearly unethical, it speaks to the life we know where people are often a means to an end. I suppose if the goalpost of what society deems as ‘ethical’ constantly shifts, then we have let ourselves go as a society. 

Desyre Foo

the last 50 pages of the book was its only saving grace. 200 pages of tireless mystery that didn’t dangle any carrots for one to continue. I bought this book brand new with my hard earned money and that was the only reason why I pushed through…

The anecdotes were scattered & messy. Probably the author’s intention to realistically mirror human’s recollection that often is messy and non-linear, but 200 pages of this mess, i couldn’t care less for the characters. So much so that when it attempts to highlight grey areas or ethical dilemmas, its effect fell short. 

I appreciate the constant hopelessness that this book portrays which inadvertently made the ending very predictable but very well written, it tugged at my heart strings. The nuances that this author attempts to highlight, children as a means to an end to cure cancer - though clearly unethical, it speaks to the life we know where people are often a means to an end. I suppose if the goalpost of what society deems as ‘ethical’ constantly shifts, then we have let ourselves go as a society. 

Spoke to me in a deeply spiritual way. Does yearning very well and tackles so many great themes without the heavy handiness of many "speculative fiction" novels. Heart wrenching in a great way. Will be thinking about this for a long time.

Derek Graf

this type of writing style, stream of consciousness writing, is what i appreciate the most. my most favorite writing style. i adore the writing in this book so much because to wrap a story beautifully in this way is so difficult.

however, although i liked the way the story, the passages and the imagery, were stitched together even as it moves back and forth, i wanted something more to happen given the plot is something so big. but maybe that wasn’t the point of the book at all, maybe the point of the book is just to simply explore humanness (i think this was, in fact, the point). however, there were critical conversations, turning points in the story, that i felt should have been explored more.

this type of writing style, stream of consciousness writing, is what i appreciate the most. my most favorite writing style. i adore the writing in this book so much because to wrap a story beautifully in this way is so difficult.

however, although i liked the way the story, the passages and the imagery, were stitched together even as it moves back and forth, i wanted something more to happen given the plot is something so big. but maybe that wasn’t the point of the book at all, maybe the point of the book is just to simply explore humanness (i think this was, in fact, the point). however, there were critical conversations, turning points in the story, that i felt should have been explored more.

I read “The Buried Giant” a couple years ago and I learned that it was Ishiguro’s only book in 3rd person, so I thought to myself, ‘his other books must be better.’ This one wasn’t. Ishiguro writes incredibly staggered, with this quiet cadence I could not latch onto at all. His characters read like poor imitations of Wes Anderson creations, flat dialogue and no emotion (which was strange for a book lauded to be tender and all about relationships!). I liked Madam’s spider-vision, I liked Madam watching Kathy dance, what I did not like, and I’ll tell you soon what that is, was how every couple paragraphs out narrator would preface that they were about to say something and then say that  thing. It happened far too often to be enjoyable, maybe once is enough but even that is pushing it. Klara and the Sun has such a pretty, red cover I want to read it next but now I’m scared!

Eli Alvah Huckabee

Chris Dailey

Subtle and devastating novel that straddles coming-of-age confusion and horrifying dystopia. Set in two periods - late 80s and late 90s - in rural England, the story follows a group of friends in boarding school that reconnect "later" in life. The dialogue, conflicts and confusion are ostensibly banal and kiddish...until the small hints and intentional vagueness reveal a terrifying truth that our protagonist and her friends are in-fact clones being raised for organ harvesting. Their idyllic and beloved boarding school is actually a liberal endeavor to provide these children with a semblance of humanity before their demise. The build is slow and clues sparse except for a feeling that something is off. In the end, the normality and inevitability of their fates is the most upsetting. Slow and banal for large portions but ultimately worth the ride.

Mah Chuan Kai

Never written a review till now. This was my first Kazuo Ishiguro book and I was really moved towards the end of the book. I was so absorbed into the bleak, enclosed life, yet dotted with rays of happiness of the students as described by Kathy that the overarching themes of sci-fi and dystopia never really occured to me other than just hanging in the background. I have not read anything quite like this before, where the story just kind of flows with a lot of emphasis on mood and atmosphere rather than a clear plotline. By the end I was really attached to majority of the characters. 

I an sure to read more books by him in the future. 

"I was thinking about the rubbish, the flapping plastic in the branches, the shore-line of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across and the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that - I didn't let it - and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be. "

4.25. Ishiguro's style is quiet, subtle devastation. I enjoyed the confined exploration of what identity, friendship, and community mean for these clones at a seemingly posh boarding school. But at times, it can feel a little dry and slow. Though it takes patience to make it to the payoff, the themes are worth the exploration.

Katelyn Caillouet

damn good plot. i like his writing style too. i was pretty stumped for a solid 2 days after reading this. would definitely read more of his works.

sneha

Anjorin Molayo 

i went into this blindly, and i genuinely think it would be a complete miss if i went searching for specific things about the book. the point of this book lies elsewhere, and not where you’d think if you went into it with expectations 

i have just finished it and i feel crushed. not in an overly dramatic way, but in a more suppressed, empty kind of way. the sort of sadness you feel about something that "could have been".

what a book. I was so bored so many times(if not throughout). it was very slow paced, but by the end I think even that boredom served a purpose in this story. all the childish pettiness, all the fights, the delicacy of human relationships from childhood to adulthood, the simplicity of life, the complexity of it all at the end of the day. the contrast between the mundane and the tragic. everything worked its way up towards delivering a question to us in a subtle yet very clear way.

the reason why i gave this 4 stars and not 5, is because the narration felt a bit barren and detached. I understand the passivity of Kathy serves a purpose too for the overall tragedy of the story, but i would have liked a more colorful and sentimental description of the past, which i believe would serve well in the book for the dark reality to hit all the more harder. just because the events are mundane doesn't mean the characters have to be written in a boring way. 

all in all, i love this book, and i’ll definitely read more books from the author.

i went into this novel not knowing what it was about. i wanted to experience it blindly, so i didn’t read the synopsis or any reviews before. and i only plan on reading the reviews after i am done with my own.

at first, i was kind of confused, a lot of new terminology and concepts that weren’t at first explained at all. honestly, i actually loved it like that. it kept me interested and on the edge, to find out what was actually going on at hailsham and what was going to happen to all these students after their time at the school, and what were the donations all about. 

i liked how slow the pacing was, it fit the story well and i got so immersed into this world and i loved kathy’s voice and how she explained and reminisced about her life and her time from hailsham to the cottages to her work as a carer. it felt really raw, and it made me emotional more often than not.

it’s really thought provoking, emotional & beautifully written. one of my favourites for sure; i now want to read more of ishiguro’s works.

i went into this novel not knowing what it was about. i wanted to experience it blindly, so i didn’t read the synopsis or any reviews before. and i only plan on reading the reviews after i am done with my own.

at first, i was kind of confused, a lot of new terminology and concepts that weren’t at first explained at all. honestly, i actually loved it like that. it kept me interested and on the edge, to find out what was actually going on at hailsham and what was going to happen to all these students after their time at the school, and what were the donations all about. 

i liked how slow the pacing was, it fit the story well and i got so immersed into this world and i loved kathy’s voice and how she explained and reminisced about her life and her time from hailsham to the cottages to her work as a carer. it felt really raw, and it made me emotional more often than not.

it’s really thought provoking, emotional & beautifully written. one of my favourites for sure; i now want to read more of ishiguro’s works.

ghost girl in satin

I'm not sure I loved this book, but I found it interesting and captivating enough to keep me reading it until the very end.

No plot, no meaning, just empty, hollow and dumb. Hated every character so it's not a character driven book and there's literatly no moving foward in terms of "plot" so it's not a plot book either, so what even is it? It's not a mystery, it's got like 0.00003% touch of emotion in it, which I guess is the point of the book, but it was so meaningless, it felt so useless. Genuinely I do not understand how anyone could like this book? It's just so boring. It's so stale and reminds me of eating cardboard really. Would not recommened ever.  

Never Let Me Go Twentieth Anniversary Edition

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