Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954 and came to Britain at the age of five. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. "Never Let Me Go" is his sixth novel and was first published in 2005. Like his previous books "An Artist of the Floating World" and When We Were Orphans", it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize - an award he won with "The Remains of the Day" in 1989.

From the book's beginning, it's clear that things are operating under slightly different rules than those we're used to. The story is set in England and is told by Kathy; although she spends much of the book looking back over her life, the 'current' date is somewhere in the late 1990s. Kathy has been working as a carer for eleven years, though she will probably be stepping down within the next twelve months. As a carer, it's her job to look after organ donors. Given that her donors tend to have excellent recovery times, it's something she seems to be very good at. However, it's also clear that the donors she cares for donate repeatedly. In fact, from early in the book, there's the suspicion that her patients are only 'allowed' to stop donating when they die - or 'complete', as Kathy puts it.

Kathy studied at Hailsham : more or less a boarding school, apparently quite prestigious, though also a little unusual. There's an air of familiarity between the pupils and the staff - who are referred to as guardians, rather than teachers. The pupils don't appear to follow the standard curriculum - there's no mention of GCSEs or A-Levels. (For that matter, there's no mention of summer holidays or family either). In recent years, Kathy has been able to choose some of the patients she cares for. Two of the patients she has selected are Tommy and Ruth, friends from her days at Hailsham. "Never Let Me Go" sees Ruth looking back over her life with Tommy and Ruth, from their earliest days at Hailsham together right up until the present day. In doing so, it becomes clear what role she, Tommy and Ruth play in society and why Hailsham was so unusual.

This was the first book by Kazuo Ishiguro I read, but I'll certainly read more by him. Although very sad, this is easily the best book I've read this year and is one I can see myself re-reading several times. Sometimes, when a book has left its mark on me, I find myself wondering what has happened to a character after the final page : Kathy is a character I found myself wondering about.

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