Name: Never Let Me Go
ISBN: 9780571249381

Kazuo Ishiguro

*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.'

Never Let Me Go

Emiley Jones

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.

Stavros Kosmas

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. 

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

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

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.

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.”

Helen 

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.

nica

“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.”

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.

“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.”

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

Jiya

Has Keffers recruited you for his porn patrol? 

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. 

smile??

[...] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ritik Sahni

'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.

Science fiction which isn’t norm my vibe but this author is gooood. Random story of this segregated school and the students uncovering the rest of the world. Love, morals, friendship etc

Rebecca atkinson

My impression of this book changed like literally at the very latest chapter. 

Even through 80% reading progress of this book I'm still not quite get it what's all this about, what's this book talking about or telling us or who are they (or I just missed something idk).

I feel like everything scattered like a clue that we have to pick up one by one and make a connection and conclusion by ourself, a subtle hint, and implicit meaning here and there. Then everything finally make sense at the end, or kind of.

The book is quite triggered so many emotions on me, especially or specifically the last few chapter, when everything start to come to light and explained.

Although unfortunately it still quite falls flat on me, possibly because nothing big in particular happening, everything seems too blurry and I'm having a hard time have a grasp on it. No conclusive ending as well but it is a thoughtful read.

My impression of this book changed like literally at the very latest chapter. 

Even through 80% reading progress of this book I'm still not quite get it what's all this about, what's this book talking about or telling us or who are they (or I just missed something idk).

I feel like everything scattered like a clue that we have to pick up one by one and make a connection and conclusion by ourself, a subtle hint, and implicit meaning here and there. Then everything finally make sense at the end, or kind of.

The book is quite triggered so many emotions on me, especially or specifically the last few chapter, when everything start to come to light and explained.

Although unfortunately it still quite falls flat on me, possibly because nothing big in particular happening, everything seems too blurry and I'm having a hard time have a grasp on it. No conclusive ending as well but it is a thoughtful read.

Really pleasantly surprised by this one. For me, it really hit everything I was missing with Klara and the Sun and worked much better as a character and social exploration.

Sivani

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

- 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

- one of ishiguro's most emotionally hard-hitting stories, but it's also very quiet in how it presents some of these horrors which i think is its greatest strength

- dear mr. ishiguro is a lover of humanity, or at least someone who never shuts up about us. this book is the culmination of all the questions he's been asking in big neon LED lights: what does it mean to be human? where is the line drawn? what defines the human experience? and (spoilers) can something that isn't human still possess a soul, or still experience love?

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

- the ishiguro gateway drug

- 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

- one of ishiguro's most emotionally hard-hitting stories, but it's also very quiet in how it presents some of these horrors which i think is its greatest strength

- dear mr. ishiguro is a lover of humanity, or at least someone who never shuts up about us. this book is the culmination of all the questions he's been asking in big neon LED lights: what does it mean to be human? where is the line drawn? what defines the human experience? and (spoilers) can something that isn't human still possess a soul, or still experience love?

- also, no one talks about this but it has quite a lot to say about how different people perceive the idea of intercourse, love, intimacy, etc. 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

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.

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

Clara Gauthier

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.

Never Let Me Go

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club