Never Let Me Go is set in 1990s England and follows the story of Kathy, a student at an exclusive boarding school, along with her friends, Tommy and Ruth. Ruth later begins a relationship with Tommy, while his friendship with Kathy continues to grow. Eventually, as the truth of the story comes to light, Kathy becomes Tommy’s carer, and they eventually become a couple. The love and betrayal between these three characters propel the story forward. The novel explores themes of friendship, hope and despair, and what it means to be human, all the while becoming increasingly more mysterious as the protagonist grows. Kathy’s story is shaped by her fragmented and unreliable memories, leaving readers to question what is real and what is distorted by time. However, its themes, such as the nature of the world and nostalgia of the past, are a few of the main reasons why the book is so well regarded. One particularly thought-provoking quote from the novel captures this feeling: “Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.” This sentiment becomes even more poignant as Kathy struggles to hold onto the past due to her memory loss, and the fact she has no control over her own destiny.

Another aspect of why the story is loved includes the haunting narrative. Ishiguro weaves the story through the eyes of a clone who the reader first sees as a child. This innocent lens only creates foreboding as more of the story is revealed. The body of work is also a slow-burn, ensnaring its readers with its quiet tension and impressionable climax. While some readers may find its 300 plus pages a drag, Ishiguro’s simple word-building is emotionally steely, aiding readers to connect to the book’s characters and their experiences on a deeper level. In an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro, the author stated: “I wanted rather to write a story in which every reader might find an echo of his or her own life,” the essence of creating relatability not only helped reader’s engage with the novel, but had them reflecting on moments of their own life which is only emphasised in where the novel is set- not an imaginary world but a real place, a country where many of the readers could have grown-up in themselves.

The novel draws inspiration from the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996 and the cloning of a human embryo in 2001, feeding into the book’s darker themes of organ donation, death, and the possibilities of a dystopian future. The plot, which mostly explores whether cloned humans should act as organ donors or have the freedom to steer their own fate, stirred up an ethical dilemma amongst readers. This debate can unsettle readers, and some may argue that a clone is not a human, so forced organ donation cannot be deemed as unethical. However, Kathy and her friends experience love and loss just as any human would, obscuring what is classed as being human. Treating sentient beings as commodities and disposing them without thought, also sheds light on humanity and what is deemed as socially acceptable.

Books such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle also inspired Ishiguro’s work, especially with their historical and sci-fi backgrounds. Other influences included cinematic masterpieces such as Jurassic Park and The Island, both of which tackle topics of mass cloning and unethical genetic engineering. The Island explores the concept of using clones for organ donation, emphasising the dark consequences of clones being thinking, feeling beings, who may have some kind of ‘soul’. In an interview with the author, Ishiguro revealed insight into how the story solidified: “I heard a discussion on the radio about advances in biotechnology. I usually tune out when scientific discussions come on, but this time I listened, and the framework around these students of mine finally fell in place.”