Never Let Me Go

NEVER LET ME GO
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Award: Nobel Prize Winner 2005

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2005, Dublin Longlist 2007, James Tait Black Finalist 2005, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2005

Date Read: June 6, 2010

 If a coming-of-age novel had a baby with a science fiction novel, you would get Never Let Me Go. Add in Ishiguro's brilliant prose and you get an unforgettable novel about the limitlessness of humanity and the heart's endless capacity for love. 

 Set in some indeterminate future, the novel follows three friends through their experiences as they become teenagers and are allowed more freedom. Not until you are pretty far into this novel do you fully realize why the characters are special and considered different. As this realization also settles into each of these characters' minds, they must abandon their childhood innocence and adopt the brutal adult version of reality.

 I hesitate to give too much away here should anyone ever stumble onto this post. I hold a special place in my heart for Ishiguro, who never fails to stun me with his ability to create vivid realities that either never were or have long gone by.

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