Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Knopf, 2005
Fiction
This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005.
The narrator is a young 31 year old woman reminiscing
about her schooldays in Hailsham a special school where
children are sent who do not have any parents, but are
clones of people who live elsewhere and they will eventually
be required to provide for their clones with organ parts. The
school emphasizes creativity and maintaining good health
and Kathy, Tommy and Ruth make a pact to remain friends
throughout their lives. The premise of this novel is unique
and disturbing because the characters know somewhere
there is someone genetically like them who will one day
request an organ donation if not ultimately a vital organ
which will spell doom for the clones. Kathy learns to be a
care giver which is someone assigned to take care of a
clone after they have made an organ donation. The novel is
divided into three parts. In the first part Kathy is the friend to
both Tommy and Ruth, protecting them and nurturing them
during their school days. The second part is where the
clones graduate to cottages where they are free to live their
lives anyway they choose, except hanging over their heads
is the dooming obligations they face. The third part of the
novel describes how Tommy and Ruth become donors while
Kathy is there to care for them.

Why You Should Read This Book: This is such a unique

story and one where perhaps in the future human beings will
be cloned for this very purpose. The novel is disturbing on
many levels with the clones realizing they have been
produced as parts for someone else. If you like science
fiction with a philosophical twist this story will intrigue you,
and the moral implications are extraordinary to ponder.