Never Let Me Go

By: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

©2005 Kazuo Ishiguro (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

• National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee, 2005, Fiction
• Alex Award Winner, 2006

"Stunningly brilliant fiction....A masterpiece of craftsmanship that offers an unparalleled emotional experience." (Kirkus Reviews)

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

"So exquisitely observed that even the most workaday objects and interactions are infused with a luminous, humming otherworldliness.....Ishiguro spins a stinging cautionary tale of science outpacing ethics." (Publishers Weekly)

"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)

"Ishiguro’s provocative subject matter and taut, potent prose have earned him multiple literary decorations, including the French government’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and an Order of the British Empire for service to literature. . . . In this luminous offering, he 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

Slow moving story

Slow moving story that could have been written in 150 pages instead. Not much of a plot.

The Island for grownups

Emotive and touching. Author realizes that making something tragic includes developing characters to whom tragic things happening is indeed a tragedy. The reading is wonderful also.

Interesting book of self reflection

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Depends on the friend, this is by no means a happy or light hearted story, but it does present some interesting themes and good topics for conversation.

What did you like best about this story?

Themes.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I had a hard time connecting the characters to the voices, would not have been my choice to go with such a cold and dispassionate british voice, and she sounded too old.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When she drives away from Tommy and heads to the field to imagine the way things might have been.

Thought provoking

This is such a unique read. It is so melancholy and mysterious the entire way through. I’m so glad I got it. I would definitely listen again

Touching

Beautiful, touching book that explores relationships and humanity uniquely and simply. Highly recommend. Ishiguro is a true talent.

Days later, you re-evaluate

This book had such a lingering impact. I found myself crying days later at the hopeless situation of these "students" lives. So, hopeless, that they barely even dared to dream of any life beyond what was set for them, let alone strive to escape their destinies. Ruth's big dream is just so pathetic in real life, that it made me re-evalute that character. At the end of the book, I disliked her -- judging her from the internal standard of her world. After all, she was manipulative and self-centered. And yet, days later, when viewed from outside her world, how can you judge her harshly. I have re-evaluated several times how I feel about Madame and Miss Emily, whether or not Miss Lucy was right and why Tommy continued to do his art.

Forgettable

Any additional comments?

I kept thinking the story just had to get better but not so much. It held my attention but just barely

Good concept

Loved the concept, good perspective but I constantly felt like I was waiting on something to happen...but nothing ever really did. Good story, emotional moments but just missing a finish line.

Melancholic must-read book for our times

This dystopian story of lifelong schoolmates and friends, narrated by Kathy, as she looks back, will sear itself into your conscience.

Beware of spoilers! Do yourself a favor and DO NOT research this book before listening. Its impact is amplified by allowing the story to unfold before you.

The book asks existential questions: Who am I? What can I become? What is my purpose? Who gets to dream; who doesn’t? Is hope fundamentally human?

And it examines societal questions:
What is the value of a human life? How might society define a person’s value? Is one’s purpose measured by one’s utility? And who gets to decide? Is it possible to optimize evil?

This melancholic book presents the complicity of some, and helplessness of others, when social experiments slide into the dark.

I can’t say more, lest I spoil it for you. This is a must-read book for our times.

I liked it!

At first it took me a while to get into the book, but the story is told beautifully and it touches your soul. The book was real, sad, and solemn.