Kazuo Ishiguro

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.

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.'

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.

In one of the most acclaimed and original novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never let me go hauntingly 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 sence of the fragility of life.

Stavros Kosmas

It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to

I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea. 

So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise 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 suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange. 

Denisse Garcia Ramírez 

Most importantly, we demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow to be as sensitive and intelligent as any ordinary human being.

You said it was because your art would reveal what you were like. What you were like inside. That’s what you said wasn’t it? Well, you weren’t far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.

Emiley Jones

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.  

surtified™

maitha mana

I rate this book a 2.8. This is one of the rare occasions where the movie is better than the book. I initially saw the movie first and fell in love with the story, and had high expectations for the book to meet the same standards; which unfortunately it didn't. The dialogue Ishiguro uses as with the character makes it hard to concentrate. It feels more like diary entries than a flow. There's constant back and forth between events from the past and present, and much more unnecessary bits where she drags on about a lake or a tree; and even then, it isn't done nicely. The only part I truly enjoyed was Part 3, where the suspense kicks in and we are given background on why the students came to be.

This felt incredibly slow. The style is there but at times it felt a bit like it would never end. 

Will Dawson

of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly 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.If you enjoyed Never Let Me Go, you might also like Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, now available in Faber Modern Classics.

Honestly I don’t even know how to describe this book. For most of it, I was utterly confused, but I realized it may have been because the main character has been a child and also unsure about what was really going on. 

little spoiler ahead but I need to get this off my chest: I hate the right-person-not-enough-time-trope. I needed more of their love story!

I still don’t know how I feel about this whole premise of that donor thing. I mean what if this is already happening right now somewhere - the technology is certainly there - a crazy thought, I know. Even if we could cure all the  incurable diseases, how can a whole human race morally accept cloning people for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs and not even letting them life a nice life. 

Valentina

Honestly I don’t even know how to describe this book. For most of it, I was utterly confused, but I realized it may have been because the main character has been a child and also unsure about what was really going on. 

little spoiler ahead but I need to get this off my chest: I hate the right-person-not-enough-time-trope. I needed more of their love story!

I still don’t know how I feel about this whole premise of that donor thing. I mean what if this is already happening right now somewhere - the technology is certainly there - a crazy thought, I know. Even if we could cure all the  incurable diseases, how can a whole human race morally accept cloning people for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs and not even letting them life a nice life. 

slow at first, but the set up and getting familiar with the characters is absolutely worth it. you start with a lot of questions and put the pieces together bit by bit as more is revealed and when it clicks, i think everything hits like a brick. my favorite part about this read was how expressive and emotional the characters are; there's a lot to think about regarding the human condition. it's melancholic and thought-provoking and a lot of instances made me pause and think about the dialogue, or the meaning behind interactions as i got deeper into the book. just... a beautiful, but tragic read.

Hannah Yoon

It took me a while before I got into the story, but as it moved along the mystery of it all drew me in. It left me feeling empty but in a fulfilling way because of how powerfully nuanced the whole story was.

The movie does no justice for this book. While the movie emphasized on romance, the book felt more of a soul searching vibe. Loved the book, I can see why it won a Nobel prize.

Cristina S

Isabella 

this was a really good book. i loved the characters and the theme and the story was very touching, but also creepy because of the whole dystopian factor. it starts out slow, but definitely worth the read. a really sad, but amazing book.

This story was not at all what I thought it would be. However, it was still as beautiful and strange as people suggested. It just leaves you feeling very sad in a good kind of way.

Huiting Lim

3.8-ish/5

this is definitely the type of book you have to avidly avoid reading reviews and spoiler-y hints to enjoy. the writing style is conversational and showcased the vulnerable fragmentation of our memories. for a moment, i was quite engrossed in the mystery and wished for an outcome that was spectacular and resolute. this isn’t the type of book for that. either ways, the way the book handled finding purpose left me with a deep sense of isolation, emptiness. i would recommend this to someone who enjoys reading about the nostalgia of childhood and innocence. (don’t read this for the mystery and the suspense but instead for the longing of returning to a state you were once familiar with)

JoAnna

The cover reviews were right: this book is definitely beautifully disquieting. 

Nothing about this book is what you'd think it is. Ishiguro's style is clear and accessible; he doesn't rely on stylistic gimmicks to grab your attention (not that those are bad—just not prevalent here). Transitions are smooth; sometimes they feel forced because he uses the same transition every time, but truthfully it works either way. I found them helpful and they kept me reading. The characters are complex and sympathetic, the narrator's voice intimate. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth all have this childlike quality to them that makes the story so nostalgic and endearing. I couldn't stop thinking about this book as I was reading it. Most of all, the dissonance between the moral dilemma at large and the intricacies of adolescence will tug at your heartstrings.

Julie Rubens

This was such a beautifully heartwarming and heartbreaking story at the same time. I have to say, I didn't expect to like the book a lot when I first started it, because I'd read Klara and The Sun by the same author a while ago and didn't enjoy reading that a lot, but I was very happily surprised!
I love the worldbuilding and even though it was a pretty difficult book to read, because of the frequent flashbacks and -forwards, I loved the fact that you really learned how the world works along with the main character. I love Kathy and the way she thinks, because it's just so pure and intelligent at the same time. I didn't really like Ruth to be honest, but that's okay and Tommy is just so sweet and kindhearted.
I have so much to say about this book, but most importantly I do really recommend it! I think it has some really important outlooks on life and it definitely makes you think about the human species.

jack

really liked this a lot more this time around. not being able to do half star ratings on goodreads is so wack but this would probably be 4.5 stars if i could. genuinely teared up this time around, didn't last time. very sweet, a lot more to it than i saw last time.

Annika Arguemore

3.7 stars, man. Hands down. Also definitely better than the movie. This book should have been called 'Never Let Hailsham Go' because, well, Kath never did let Hailsham go and I assume neither of the students ever have until their dying breath. Although the story progresses really slow, the slowness of the story-telling's quite vital so all the details could be told in the proper manner. Resplendent. Moving. This one would keep you turning the pages even though it wouldn't seem like it at first because the small font's really overwhelming to read.

the book burned a little too slow for my taste and i didn’t find kathy to be an especially interesting main character. however conceptually the story is cool and the friendship dynamics between these characters were real and moving

petrina

azliana aziz

this slow burn kind of book is a torture if you don't have that much time to read. but once you got the groove, well goodbye everything else.

my first ishiguro and has been the longest time in my tbr list, always wanted to read this but also, always got sidetracked by so many other books! quite a wonderful character study in both its female protagonists, ruth & kathy. i wish i got more time with ruth although i did enjoy kathy's first person narrative. i like the pensiveness in which many readers got thrown off because they found that not much was going on but yeah, i like that quality in a book. also i think the book's classified genre as sci-fi/dystopian is such a missed opportunity. lots of sci-fi readers didn't like this & feels cheated because yes, never let me go is a literary fiction with ishiguro mostly making social commentary & political criticism + dystopian settings. it's no 1984 but disturbing & sinister once you get what's really happening to all of the characters. certainly one of the book that stayed with you and left a mark somewhere in your soul.

Kristy Donasco

I can't really find the right words for this book except that it made me feel so much. The universe in this book feels distant and yet so close to the heart at this time.

'A clear frontrunner to be the year's most extraordinary novel . . . Not since The Remains of the Day has Ishiguro written about wasted lives with such finely gauged forlornness.' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly 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.

This was such an awful book. No, not awful-awful book but it will make you awful well for me that was this book made me feel.

The story made me frustrated, angry, sad, hopeful, happy, scared and all the emotions that I could muster. It ruined me. That's all I have to say. One of my best reads this 2016. Now I wanna watch the movie.

y✦

✦ dystopian sci-fi meets cottagecore
✦ been in my tbr for so long since watching the movie
✦ find me in my 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙧 still reeling from the pain and prose
✦ just agonizing

Ziggy

i love me a good book on the human condition but i just did not enjoy reading this as much as i thought i would

Kath

4.5/5. This novel is bleak to the core. It will crush your heart when you least expect it to and that is its power. It's only 288 page- short, succinct, no extra embellishments. Kazuo Ishiguro just gives everything to you point blank as a surprise. Every single detail is important, every single word has a purpose. This is definitely on my top ten favorite books of all time at the moment. Also, this is the first of anything that I've read from Ishiguro & this made me want to read all of his work. Japanese authors seem to be on a different plane of reality.

aywen

follows three friends that straddle the line between envied and wretched. ishiguro masterfully illustrates human expression and the complexities beneath our interpersonal relationships. i felt at once intimately acquainted with the world he created -in that i could follow the story- but i had plenty of questions that weren't answered until the final few chapters

recently did a reread for a literature class and god i missed this story. first of all this remains one of my favorite movie adaptations of all time, and it never fails to choke me up any time i watch or read about these characters. i adore them all, yes, even ruth. so beautifully flawed, so human despite everything. somehow ishiguro can toss me into the most gut wrenching situations and i still somehow feel as if i’m floating in a pool.

A masterwork of literary fiction, Never Let Me Go raises essential questions of identity and mortality. Through nuanced storytelling, we follow Kathy as she reminisces about her mysterious boarding school and close friends. Students there are being conditioned to become "donors" in an unsettling program. Kathy accepts her fate without rebellion, and her resignation left me sobbing through the agonizing final pages, struck by the subtle yet devastating power of this triumph.

Never Let Me Go

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