Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954. He came to Britain at the age of six.

He was educated in Surrey

and then at the University of Kent.
His most famous novels are The Remains of the Day, published in 1989, and Never Let me Go (2005).

Never let me go is set in a dystopian England in the late 1990es. Human clones are created so that they can donate their
organs when they become young adults. The novel follows the life of Kathy, a clone who was educated at a boarding
school (scuola preparatoria) for future “donors”. Her life is told through flashbacks. Kathy is now thirty-one and about
to (stava per)start her first donations. For the past (negli ultimi)eleven years, she has worked as a “carer”, a nurse
(infermiera) and companion to clones who are in between donations (tra una donazione e l’altra).
Kathy remembers her time at Hailsham. Her two most important friends were Ruth, charismatic but manipulative and
dishonest, and Tommy, a kind boy with a bad temper (carattere)who is isolated by the other students.
At Hailsham, art, writing, and other forms of creativity were very important. A mysterious woman named Madame
came periodically to take the students’ best artwork away to an off-campus “Gallery.” One day, one of the teachers,
Miss Lucy, tried to explain to the students about how tragic and difficult their lives would be when they become donors.
However, the students were unable to understand the information.
Years later the students graduated from Hailsham and went to live at the Cottages, where they were free to do what they
wanted. Tommy and Ruth were now a couple, and the relation with Kathy became complicated. Kathy was in fact in
love with Tommy, but Ruth managed (ha fatto in modo da) to separate them.
Kathy left the Cottages to begin her carer training (periodo di apprendistato come assistente). Years passed, and Kathy’s
memories start to converge to present times. One day, Kathy is informed that Ruth has begun her donations and
becomes her carer.
Tommy has also begun his donations, so Ruth convinces Kathy to visit him. Ruth apologizes (chiede scusa) for keeping
Kathy and Tommy separated. She encourages them to apply for a deferral(fare domanda di un rinvio della donazione
cosi lui non muore) so they can have a few years together, and gives them the address of Madame, whom she believes
will be able to help.
Shortly after this, Ruth dies. Kathy becomes Tommy’s carer. By this point, Tommy has made three organ donations and
is about to make the fourth, with very little possibility to survive. Kathy and Tommy go to visit Madame, who kindly
tells them that the deferral program never existed.
Tommy accepts that he will die soon: he asks Kathy to stop being his carer and she accepts. Back in present day, Kathy
is about to make her first donation herself. She is calm and even happy about this, because it will give her a chance to
reflect on her life.
FEATURES (caratteristiche)
- Even if it is a dystopian novel, Ishiguro chooses a realistic setting, that is England in the 1990es.
- The story is built on an information gap (scarto/mancanza di informazioni) between the narrator Kathy and the
readers.
THEMES
- The Inevitability of Loss and the acceptance of this destiny: for Kathy losing her friends, her love and her own
life (she will become a donor soon) is normal, it’s her destiny. She expresses no emotions.
- The Power of Memory, as the only means to survive in the cold society and to keep a bit oh “humanity”
- The dignity of human life, which in modern world is often manipulated and destroyed.

TOLD and NOT TOLD

The passage describes the moment in which Kathy and her classmates are informed by Miss Lucy about their future life
as donors. The teacher hears two boys talking about their dream to become actors in America. She interrupts them and
explains that no student will have a normal life: they were in fact created only to donate their vital organs. So their life
will be quite short and they cannot have any dreams or plans for their future. At the end of the passage no student is
shocked, and it seems that they didn’t understand what their teacher was saying.