Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
48 Rating(s)
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Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrator: Rosalyn Landor

Unabridged: 9 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/12/2005


Synopsis

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist—a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic.

One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

About The Author

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and now lives in London, England. Each of his understated, finely wrought novels has been published to international acclaim. He was in both of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists anthologies, and won the Booker Prize at thirty-four for Remains of the Day.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by merri on 2008-11-12 20:10:03

Never let me go by kazuo ishiguro is a science fiction type book, but a tricky one, because it doesn't seem sci fi ish. You start out reading the book, and think it is a normal book, with a woman in the 1990's reminicing about life going to a boarding school in the 70's. I don't know why, but I always like movies and books about boarding schools, even though I never went to one. But as you read on, you learn that there is something more to these children. The reader kind of learns along with the children, who don't fully know who or what they are. It's really creepy that way. It's a horror story in a sneaky sort of way, without the usual monsters or slashing or killers, and yet, with all that stuff in a way as well. I would definitely recommend this book. I can't help but feel like this is something that might come to pass in the future...

AudiobooksNow review by Melissa on 2011-03-07 20:01:59

I believe this story falls short as a love story and as science fiction story. I am much more interested in the aspect of the donors and the technicalities behind that. I feel the story could have elaborated on the lives of the adult donors and carers more for an intriguing sci-fi story. I also didn't find myself very interested in the love story, I did not feel that Kathy felt very passionately about Tommy and therefore Ruth's betrayal didn't seem that devastating either. I did enjoy the Ruth character though, and enjoyed the antics of the children while going to school. I even rented the movie to see if it sparked more emotion, but it also felt very mediocre. Perhaps it is the polite way the English deal with emotions and eachother, would have just liked a bit more emotional involvement and passion.

Goodreads review by Fabian on September 20, 2020

Ah f**kin' British writers! My inclination to adore everyone from Evelyn Waugh to Charles Dickens, from Alex Garland to Zadie Smith seems very ingrained (VERY DEEP) inside me, primordial, & there must be SOME bloody reason why I find most English fiction so alluring. I think it has mostly to do with......more

Goodreads review by emma on December 13, 2023

I just...don't know how you take a book with a plotline as interesting and creepy and unique as this one and turn it into an unrelenting snoozefest, party of one. When I hear "the best novel of the decade," I expect brilliance. When I hear "now a major motion picture starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Ga......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on March 03, 2008

It's very important, if you're intending to read this book, that you don't read any reviews or listen to any talk about it first. I had no idea what this book was about before I read it - and the blurb gives you a very different impression, actually - and so I slipped easily into a story that was as......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on January 25, 2024

this book was not AT ALL what i expected. from a writing standpoint, this is easily 5 stars. but overall, the story left something to be desired. i also didn’t find this to be as devastating as most people say it is. it’s objectively a sad story, but to me it was more disturbing than anything else. n......more

Goodreads review by Ian on October 30, 2022

DIALOGUE: Imagine a restaurant, London, mid-2003. Publisher: Hey, K, we need another novel and we need it quick. K: I know, I know. Publisher: Another “Remains of the Day”. Something Hollywood can turn into a hit. K: I’m working on it. Publisher: Any ideas? K: Well, I’ve been reading some Jonathan Swift. Pu......more


Quotes

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A SEATTLE TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
A TIME BEST BOOK


“A feat of imaginative sympathy and technique. . . . Ishiguro has a way of pitting innocence against experience, while reminding us that we’re capable of both.” The New York Times Book Review

“Speculative, experimental, and humanly moving. . . . Miraculous.”The New Republic

“A page turner and a heartbreaker, a tour de force of knotted tension and buried anguish.” Time

“Brilliant . . . Ishiguro’ s most profound statement of the endurance of human relationships. . . . The most exact and affecting of his books to date.” The Guardian

“A Gothic tour de force.... A tight, deftly controlled story.... Just as accomplished [as The Remains of the Day] and, in a very different way, just as melancholy and alarming.” The New York Times

“Elegaic, deceptively lovely.... As always, Ishiguro pulls you under.” Newsweek

“Superbly unsettling, impeccably controlled.... The book’s irresistible power comes from Ishiguro’s matchless ability to expose its dark heart in careful increments.”Entertainment Weekly

“The year’s most extraordinary novel.” The Times

“Elegiac, compelling, otherworldly, deeply disturbing and profoundly moving.” Sunday Herald

“Ishiguro’s elegant prose and masterly ways with characterization make for a lovely tale of memory, self-understanding, and love.” Library Journal (starred review)

“So exquisitely observed that even the most workaday objects and interactions are infused with a luminous, humming otherworldliness. . . . An epic ethical horror story, told in devastatingly poignant miniature. . . . Ishiguro spins a stinging cautionary tale of science outpacing ethics.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Perfect pacing and infinite subtlety. . . . That this stunningly brilliant fiction echoes Caryl Churchill’s superb play A Number and Margaret Atwood’ s celebrated dystopian novels in no way diminishes its originality and power. A masterpiece of craftsmanship that offers an unparalleled emotional experience. Send a copy to the Swedish Academy.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Luminous. . . . [Ishiguro] nimbly navigates the landscape of emotion—the inevitable link between present and past and the fine line between compassion and cruelty, pleasure and pain.” Booklist


Awards

  • Margaret A. Edwards Award (Alex Awards)