Never Let Me Go by Kazuro Ishiguro is a novel that will stay with me for a long time. I felt both frightened and intrigued at the same time as I delved into a dystopian, bioethical romance about memories, friendship, petty jealousies, the inevitability of death, and fate. A beautiful yet horrific story about a twisted childhood and nostalgia, with a plot that is difficult not to spoil. I’ll do my best to put the exquisiteness of the novel into words, but I highly recommend you take the journey Never Let Me Go entails for its readers on your own.

The book is set in the “present day,” a parallel universe in England in the 1990s. Thirty-one-year-old Kathy H., a former student at Hailsham who is now a “carer” that helps organ donors during their surgeries, narrates the story. A large portion of the text consists of nostalgic flashbacks to her days as a thirteen-year-old student, which also comes to the reader as dark foreshadowings of the creepy reality in store for her and the others. Kathy mostly describes her early days at Hailsham, a seemingly pleasant English elite boarding school for “different” students that are isolated from the outside world.  These students are well-cared for and nurtured, receive art and literature training from teacher/parent-like “guardians”, and grow into the kind of individuals the world desires. That is, an individual who becomes a “carer” and eventually someone who “unzips their organs,” a euphemism the children use for “donors.” Kathy sums it up pretty nicely:

“We certainly knew -- though not in any deep sense -- that we were different from our guardians, and also from the normal people outside; we perhaps even knew that a long way down the line there were donations waiting for us. But we didn't really know what that meant.” 

It is a career each and every one of them is destined to have, except the students--and readers-- don’t know their sole purpose for being in school is to prepare themselves for their life as donors until much later, when distraught guardian Miss Lucy tells all:

“None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars…Your lives are set out for you. You'll become adults, then before you're old, before you're even middle-aged, you'll start to donate your vital organs. That's what each of you was created to do.”

It is also revealed that after the third or fourth donation, most donors “complete,” or die; death is inevitable for these “special” children, who readers later find out to be clones whose only purpose is to donate their vital organs to “non-clone” humans. This makes sense--if they “complete” their jobs, they are no longer needed in society (if you read the manga The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai, this entire concept may sound familiar to you).

Beyond the escalating series of haunting revelations, readers see a raw and vulnerable friendship between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy develops throughout the novel, infused with themes of sex and betrayal. Kathy is the kind, candid one who listens to old cassettes (including one with the title song, “Never Let Me Go,” which I highly suggest you listen to on Spotify) and yearns for an affectionate life she cannot have. One of her best friends is Ruth, who often takes pride in putting Kathy down--especially when it comes to keeping her and Tommy apart, as Ruth envies the love Kathy and Tommy have and wishes she could have had the same. Only at the end of the novel does she regret her actions and try (in vain) to make things right. Tommy, infamous for his temper tantrums, is always mocked by his classmates for his lack of creativity in art class--something paramount at Hailsham, alongside personal health, of course. Towards the end of the novel, he uses his art to prove to the “guardians” that he loves Kathy, in hopes of receiving a deferral that will postpone his and Kathy’s “completion.” Yet Ishiguro’s heartbreaking ending proves once more that one cannot control fate (as Oedipus once learned), and that death ultimately is something shared among all--human or not “human”.

The more that I think of it, Never Let Me Go isn’t just a piece of literary fiction one reads--it’s a thought-provoking, riveting experience. An experience that has left me questioning the morality of society, questioning the way we treat those who are unique or vulnerable and whether or not our future will take on elements of the story. Never Let Me Go has left me stunned, but in a good way; if you do choose to read it, I’m sure it will challenge the way you view life and those around you as well.

Check out Never Let me go from NBPL!