Never Let Me Go
Never Let Me Go — a coming of age story, but not as you know it: Kathy, Tommy and Ruth all grow up together at a British boarding school. Though they are treated with kindness, with a lot of care taken over their health in particular, a vague sense of melancholy permeates their environment. Is it because they, like all the children at the boarding school, have no families of their own? Are they just facing the complexities of adolescence, with all its yearning and petty jealousies? As the three go out into the world as young adults, their friendships are both underpinned and threatened by frustrations and emotions they don’t know how to give expression to. But a hazy future looms ever closer, and the claustrophobic intensity of their relationship will be broken when each goes their separate way. At the same time, the specter of an unavoidable horror hangs over every desire they have to lead independent lives. Writer Kazuo Ishiguro, a master of the subtle interplay between environment and memory, evokes the regret of chances not taken, even as he gradually reveals the full extent of the heart-rending choices awaiting his protagonists.