Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro · first published 2005
58% recommend33% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Quiet, devastating dystopian novel where the sci-fi premise stays in the background and the focus is on characters swept helplessly along; suits readers who want emotional, poetic fiction over action.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Ishiguro explores what it means to have a soul and how art distinguishes man from other life forms. But above all, Never Let Me Go is a study of friendship and the bonds we form which make or break while we come of age.
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Mentions per year
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…would have been "people going down with failing kidneys" -- but how much suffering can you justify by saying that it might save human lives down the road? I'm reminded of Kazuo Ishiguro's excellent novel Never Let Me Go. (--- Major spoiler alert! ---) It takes place in a sort of parallel-universe Britain of the '70s and '80s where human cloning was invented just after WWII. Cloning has become the cure for cancer: just…
on “Soviet Scientists Made This Two-Headed Dog | Motherboard” ↗Fascinating. This article (esp the part about young people not even thinking about their future knowing its already decided for them) reminds me of the novel 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro. Great novel but one of the criticism directed at the novel is "why are certain characters so passive towards their condition", "why don't they do something about it"? An instilled…
on “How do you get a job in North Korea?” ↗Nice article. I have a new year’s resolution to read more good literature and listen to more classical music. Anyway, Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go has been on my Audible wish list for a year so I just bought it. Thanks Adam for posting this. Sorry to be a little off topic, but I notice that most of my friends and family spend a lot of time watching…
on “Kazuo Ishiguro uses artificial intelligence to reveal the limits of our own” ↗…I would maybe try the following: For fiction, best no reasons given, go into these blind: - Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler - The City and the City, China Mieville - Exhalation, Ted Chiang - Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro For non-fiction: - Any book that tells some of the history of the field you have a career in. You need it for perspective. For me it was the books Hackers by Stephen Levy (problematic…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗…preoccupations in a turbulent time, provide a fascinating glimpse of what to me was an entirely unknown society and culture. It's the first book in a trilogy, so if you like it, there are more books waiting. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro Very sad. It ripped me up the first time I read it. Anybody who grew up feeling different and somehow deficient should read it. Talking to Strange Men, by Ruth Rendell An easy…
on “Ask HN: Summer Reading Recommendations?” ↗I loved "Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go", but didn't finish "The Buried Giant." The first two aren't fantasy, but IMHO they're much better Ishiguro. As for "literature-y" fantasy, I'd agree with others here to look at magical realism, e.g.…
on “Harper Lee has died” ↗…to Audible, but they apparently don't have the '99 books-on-tape version. I can say that I've "read" more Ishiguro through audiobooks than paper, and that they've all been excellent. Rosalyn Landor's Never Let Me Go was particularly moving. The first-person perspective used by Ishiguro in several of his novels lends itself very well to the format. When We Were Orphans isn't typically considered one of his stronger…
on “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 – Kazuo Ishiguro [pdf]” ↗Never Let Me Go is a favorite of mine. I have read it twice, and I NEVER read novels twice.
on “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 – Kazuo Ishiguro [pdf]” ↗+1 for Never Let Me Go. I read it last week and found it very moving. Mark Romanek's film version is excellent too.
on “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 – Kazuo Ishiguro [pdf]” ↗Read “never let me go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, or actually even watch the movie that was made of it (same title) That illustrates fairly well why having an underclass who provides healthy organs to the rich is a utterly barbaric…
on “Facebook has been paying people to install a “Research” VPN” ↗Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro felt similar to Ted Chiang's carefully prepared and high-minded sci-fi. They both write with a poetic sensibility that puts the sci-fi elements in the background.
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗1.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 2.Looking for Alaska 3.Blindness 4.Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival 5.The Martian 6.Never Let Me Go
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗Remains of the Day is incredible, but I will say I think ishiguro's best work is Never Let Me Go. The story line is enrapturing but ultimately not what the book is about. I'll leave two quotes. > We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s hard to categorise, nominally science fiction but not out of place with literary fiction. The writing is plain but it’s quite an emotional book to read with a very dark twist…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗…favorite books are rated below 4.0. A few examples: 1. White Noise at 3.86 2. Catch-22 at 3.99 3. Dhalgren at 3.77 4. At Swim-Two-Birds at 3.86 5. Midnight's Children at 3.98 6. Омон Ра at 3.90 7. Never Let Me Go at 3.84 Drawing the line at 4 rules out some of the most interesting books. In my experience, you really have to fall below 3.5 to get consistently bad books, and even then it's not 100% guaranteed.
on “The murky math of the New York Times bestsellers list” ↗