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8 Burnside Literature- A to Z

eBook editions

Never Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go Cover

ISBN13: 9781400043392
ISBN10: 1400043395
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

 

Awards

The Rooster 2006 Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee

Staff Pick

Ishiguro takes a meditative look at childhood, loss of innocence, and human deception and the drive for survival. This is a haunting narrative that is joyous and sad at once — reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, but with a very literary and poignant eye for deeper "human" emotion. This book takes its time, but it will surprise you. In the end, it may even change the way you think about the nature of man.
Recommended by John B, Powells.com

Review-A-Day

"The beauty in this novel must be carefully distinguished from its power to distress. Ultimately, there is a connection: the depth and quality of the relationships between Kath, Tommy and Ruth certainly accentuate the cruelty of their deaths. From under the shadow of their fate, Ishiguro draws warmly compelling vignettes of love and friendship that cumulatively establish an urgent and engrossing narrative pace." Ruth Scurr, Times Literary Supplement (read the entire Times Literary Supplement)

"Suffice it to say that Ishiguro serves up the saddest, most persuasive science fiction you'll read....With its fantastic, inky bleakness, Never Let Me Go itself mutates the meaning of 'Ishiguroish,' or 'Ishiguroesque,' or whatever epithet sticks to this wonderful writer." Joseph O'Neill, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)

"Never Let Me Go is a fantasy so mundanely told, so excruciatingly ordinary in transit, its fantastic elements so smothered in the loam of the banal and so deliberately grounded, that the effect is not just of fantasy made credible or lifelike, but of the real invading fantasy, bursting into its eccentricity and claiming it as normal. Given that Ishiguro's new novel is explicitly about cloning, that it is, in effect, a science fiction set in the present day, and that the odds against success in this mode are bullyingly stacked, his success in writing a novel that is at once speculative, experimental, and humanly moving is almost miraculous." James Wood, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"In this luminous offering, [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

Review:

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

Review:

"Perfect pacing and infinite subtlety.... A masterpiece of craftsmanship that offers an unparalleled emotional experience. Send a copy to the Swedish Academy." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Synopsis:

From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love.

As a child, Kathy-now thirty-one years old-lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed-even comforted-by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailshams nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood-and about their lives now.

A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance-and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguros finest work.

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.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 9 comments:

Kristen Ketchel-Bain, January 1, 2011 (view all comments by Kristen Ketchel-Bain)
I loved this book with the heat of a thousand suns. It's like reading a watercolor. It is dreamy and indistinct and wonderful, and then all of a sudden, the edges start coming into focus, and what has seemed like a sweet, strange story comes crashing in on you as a truly, truly horrific reality. It is a tale masterfully told, like having someone whisper the story in your ear with a wistful sigh, and soft cotton candy breath. The beauty is not marred by what the reader comes to understand as the book winds to a close.

It's hard for me to adequately describe how much I enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was utter brilliance. It is simple, it is spare, it is gorgeous.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Steverino, January 7, 2010 (view all comments by Steverino)
Brilliantly understated and evocative from first page to last, this novel is so strange yet so familiar. When I happen upon some mention of it, or when I remember a scene from it, I often get goosebumps. This masterpiece of social science fiction is an alternative history "about" cloning, but it contains many themes, from the experience of growing up to a meditation on the nature of the human soul. This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, haunting book.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
sonnetmom, January 4, 2010 (view all comments by sonnetmom)
Haunting, luminous, searing -- pick your favorite lit review adjective -- it's it.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 9 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9781400043392
Author:
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Publisher:
Knopf Publishing Group
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Women
Subject:
England
Subject:
Science fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
Publication Date:
20050131
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
304
Dimensions:
8.70x5.96x1.18 in. 1.10 lbs.

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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Science Fiction and Fantasy » A to Z
Languages » Foreign Languages » Spanish » Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Never Let Me Go Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$9.95 In Stock
Product details 304 pages Alfred A. Knopf - English 9781400043392 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

Ishiguro takes a meditative look at childhood, loss of innocence, and human deception and the drive for survival. This is a haunting narrative that is joyous and sad at once — reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, but with a very literary and poignant eye for deeper "human" emotion. This book takes its time, but it will surprise you. In the end, it may even change the way you think about the nature of man.

"Review A Day" by , "The beauty in this novel must be carefully distinguished from its power to distress. Ultimately, there is a connection: the depth and quality of the relationships between Kath, Tommy and Ruth certainly accentuate the cruelty of their deaths. From under the shadow of their fate, Ishiguro draws warmly compelling vignettes of love and friendship that cumulatively establish an urgent and engrossing narrative pace." (read the entire Times Literary Supplement)
"Review A Day" by , "Suffice it to say that Ishiguro serves up the saddest, most persuasive science fiction you'll read....With its fantastic, inky bleakness, Never Let Me Go itself mutates the meaning of 'Ishiguroish,' or 'Ishiguroesque,' or whatever epithet sticks to this wonderful writer." (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)
"Review A Day" by , "Never Let Me Go is a fantasy so mundanely told, so excruciatingly ordinary in transit, its fantastic elements so smothered in the loam of the banal and so deliberately grounded, that the effect is not just of fantasy made credible or lifelike, but of the real invading fantasy, bursting into its eccentricity and claiming it as normal. Given that Ishiguro's new novel is explicitly about cloning, that it is, in effect, a science fiction set in the present day, and that the odds against success in this mode are bullyingly stacked, his success in writing a novel that is at once speculative, experimental, and humanly moving is almost miraculous." (read the entire New Republic review)
"Review" by , "In this luminous offering, [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."
"Review" by , "Ishiguro's elegant prose and masterly ways with characterization make for a lovely tale of memory, self-understanding, and love."
"Review" by , "Perfect pacing and infinite subtlety.... A masterpiece of craftsmanship that offers an unparalleled emotional experience. Send a copy to the Swedish Academy."
"Synopsis" by , From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love.

As a child, Kathy-now thirty-one years old-lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed-even comforted-by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailshams nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood-and about their lives now.

A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance-and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguros finest work.

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