Never Let Me Go is a 2005 dystopian science fiction novel by British author Kazuo Ishiguro.

It was
shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize (an award Ishiguro had previously won in 1989 for The Remains
of the Day), for the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award and for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its "100 Best English-
language novels published since 1923—the beginning of TIME". It also received an ALA Alex Award in
2006. A film adaptation directed by Mark Romanek was released in 2010.

Background

Never Let Me Go is Ishiguro’s sixth novel. This novel takes place in an alternate reality of England
during the 1990s. During the time, human cloning was authorized and performed. Ishiguro started
writing Never Let Me Go during the year of 1990, originally titled “The Student’s Novel.”

Summary
Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian version of late 1990s England, where the lives of
ordinary citizens are prolonged through a state-sanctioned program of human cloning. The clones,
referred to as students, grow up in special institutions away from the outside world. As young adults,
they begin to donate their vital organs. All “donors” receive care from designated “carers,” clones
who have not yet begun the donation process. The clones continue to donate organs until they
“complete,” which is a euphemism for death after the donation of three or four organs. However,
this premise is not immediately apparent to the reader.

At the start of the novel, narrator Kathy H. merely introduces herself as a thirty-one-year-old carer.
She has been a carer for nearly twelve years, but will leave her role in a few months. Kathy explains
that she wants to revisit her memories of Tommy and Ruth, two friends who grew up with her at the
Hailsham school. Kathy does not explain the donation program, or mention that Hailsham students
are clones.

Although Kathy’s narration is often nonlinear, the novel’s three parts roughly align with three stages
in her life. In Part One, Kathy remembers her childhood at Hailsham. She describes her friendship
with Ruth, whose temperamental personality contrasts with her own quiet demeanor. At Hailsham,
Ruth often annoys Kathy by pretending to have special knowledge and privileges. Kathy also
describes Tommy, a student known for throwing violent temper tantrums. Tommy is initially an
outcast among his peers because he lacks artistic ability, which the Hailsham staff (part teacher, part
parent figures known as “guardians”), and its students value highly. Kathy sympathizes with Tommy,
and tries to calm him down during one of his tantrums. Tommy later learns to control his temper
after a guardian named Miss Lucy assures him that it is not necessary for him to be creative.

Although the students learn vaguely about the donation program, their guardians shield them from
a full understanding of their future. Miss Lucy disagrees with this indirect approach, and often
exhibits strange behavior in front of the students as a result, in one instance telling them explicitly
about their futures. After Miss Lucy speaks with Tommy about his artwork, he and Kathy theorize
that creativity may be connected to donations. They speculate about Madame, a woman who visits
Hailsham to collect the best student artwork. Madame is rumored to keep this art in a personal
gallery. Kathy later encounters Madame in the girls’ dormitory, while Kathy dances to the song
“Never Let Me Go.” The song is Kathy’s favorite track on Songs After Dark, a Judy Bridgewater album
that is one of her most prized possessions. When the song ends, Kathy sees Madame crying in the
doorway. Shortly afterwards, Kathy loses her tape. Tommy’s temper returns during their last
summer at Hailsham. Kathy thinks he is upset about his recent breakup with Ruth, whom he has
dated for six months. But Tommy is upset about Miss Lucy, who recently told him that she was
wrong to dismiss the importance of creativity. Miss Lucy departs Hailsham abruptly, and Tommy
mends his relationship with Ruth.

In Part Two, Kathy moves with Ruth and Tommy to a transitional housing facility known as the
Cottages. They adjust to their new lives, becoming acquainted with the “veteran” students living
there already. Ruth often ignores Tommy and Kathy in her efforts to blend in with the veterans, who
are not from Hailsham. Kathy notices that the veterans regard the Hailsham students with awe. One
couple, Chrissie and Rodney, are especially interested in Hailsham. They convince Ruth to go with
them to Norfolk, where Rodney claims to have seen Ruth’s “possible” in an open-plan office (a
“possible” is a human that resembles a specific clone and from whom that clone's DNA may have
been copied). Kathy is skeptical of Rodney’s story, especially since it features Ruth’s “dream future”
of working in an open-plan office. In the end, Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Rodney, and Chrissie all drive to
Norfolk.

In Norfolk, Chrissie and Rodney ask about a rumored exception allowing Hailsham couples in love to
defer their donations. Ruth pretends to know something about deferrals, which surprises Kathy and
Tommy. The students eventually find the open-plan office. Rodney points to a woman in the
window, and they all agree that she could be Ruth’s legitimate possible. They follow her to an art
gallery, where they realize that the woman does not actually resemble Ruth. In her disappointment,
Ruth says that the students are modeled only on “trash.” Ruth goes off with Chrissie and Rodney.
Meanwhile, Tommy and Kathy find a copy of Kathy’s lost tape in a secondhand store. Tommy tells
Kathy that he has begun drawing pictures of imaginary animals. He thinks Madame uses the
students’ artwork to determine if couples applying for deferrals are truly in love. After Norfolk, Ruth
stops talking about her dream future. Tommy shows his drawings to Kathy, who finds them puzzling
but captivating. Meanwhile, Kathy’s friendship with Ruth grows increasingly tense. Ruth reveals that
she knows Kathy likes Tommy, but says that Tommy will never return Kathy’s feelings. Shortly
afterwards, Kathy submits her application for carer training and departs.

Part Three focuses on Kathy’s time as carer. While Kathy is good at her job, the work is both difficult
and lonely. She unexpectedly runs into a Hailsham friend named Laura, who is also a carer. They talk
about Ruth, who had a bad first donation. They also talk about Hailsham, which has closed. Kathy
becomes Ruth’s carer, but their relationship is strained and guarded. One day, Ruth expresses a
desire to visit a beached fishing boat near Tommy’s recovery center. They pick up Tommy on the
way to the boat, which they find bleached and crumbling in a marsh. The marsh reminds both
Tommy and Ruth of Hailsham. They also discuss Chrissie, who completed on her second donation.
On the return trip, Ruth apologizes for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart. She encourages them to
pursue a deferral, revealing that she has discovered Madame’s home address. In the weeks that
follow, Kathy and Ruth reminisce peacefully about Hailsham and the Cottages. Ruth also encourages
Kathy to become Tommy’s carer.

Ruth completes after her second donation. Tommy gives his third donation, and Kathy becomes his
carer. They spend their days reading and talking at his recovery center. Eventually, they also begin to
have sex. Hoping to pursue a deferral, they go to visit Madame at the address Ruth provided.
Madame invites them inside and listens to their request, after which Miss Emily appears from the
next room. Miss Emily says that deferrals do not exist. She explains that Hailsham was part of a
progressive movement committed to raising clones more humanely. Madame used to exhibit the
students’ artwork to show the outside world that clones had souls. Although the movement once
had many supporters, changing public opinion eventually forced Hailsham to close. On the drive
back to his recovery center, Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He walks into the woods and begins
screaming. Kathy goes to Tommy and holds him. Soon after, Tommy gives his fourth donation and
completes. Kathy drives to a field in Norfolk, where she allows herself to imagine Tommy on the
horizon. Then she drives away.

Characters
Kathy
Kathy H. is the novel’s protagonist and narrator. She is a thirty one-year-old carer at the beginning of
the novel, although she is preparing to soon become a donor. Kathy has worked as a carer for nearly
twelve years, much longer than most of the students with whom she grew up at Hailsham. Although
she is still a relatively young adult, she has outlived most of her childhood friends. Kathy spends her
days looking backwards, recalling her memories of the people that she has lost. Through these
memories, the novel traces her complex relationships with her Hailsham friends Tommy and Ruth.
Kathy’s reflections also preserve the memory of Tommy and Ruth, both of whom have already
“completed.”

However, Kathy is also an unreliable narrator. Her account is subjective, presenting events from only
her point of view. She does not recall events in strict chronological order, frequently interrupting
one memory to share a related memory from another period in her life. She often states that she
may be misremembering certain details. At times, she also admits that Tommy or Ruth recalled a
particular event or conversation differently than she does. These idiosyncrasies reflect the
unreliability of memory itself, which is necessarily incomplete and episodic. At the same time, Kathy
is also an unreliable narrator because she carefully guards her own feelings. Kathy never explicitly
states the depths of her feelings for Tommy, for instance, although her love becomes increasingly
clear as the narrative unfolds.

Kathy’s memories likewise show her reliance on silence and indirection, especially when it comes to
expressing her emotions. For instance, Kathy often expresses her anger with Ruth by walking away
rather than explicitly confronting her. As a student at Hailsham, Kathy exhibits restraint and self-
consciousness. She often worries about being seen or overheard, especially in conversation with
Tommy. Kathy also frames herself as a careful observer. She often stands outside the action in her
memories, carefully watching those around her and noticing subtle details about their behavior. At
the Cottages, for instance, Kathy realizes that many of the veteran couples have copied their
gestures of affection from television.

Ruth

Ruth is Kathy’s close childhood friend. Kathy lives with Ruth at Hailsham and at the Cottages, and
later becomes Ruth’s carer when Ruth is a donor. At Hailsham, Ruth is outspoken and hot-tempered.
She is a natural leader among her friends, although she is often highly controlling as well. Ruth is a
foil to Kathy’s quieter and more guarded personality, and the two argue frequently. But like Kathy,
Ruth generally quarrels using subtle hints and indirection rather than direct confrontation. As a
teenager, Ruth also begins a longstanding romantic relationship with Tommy. This is an underlying
and unspoken source of tension in her friendship with Kathy, who has romantic feelings for Tommy
as well.

At Hailsham, Ruth often leads her friends in make-believe games. Her most elaborate invention is
the “secret guard,” dedicated to protecting her favorite guardian Miss Geraldine from an imaginary
plot. The fantasy of the secret guard shows Ruth’s controlling personality, but it also reflects her
larger tendency to “pretend” around her peers. Ruth often implies that she has special knowledge
and privileges unavailable to other students. For instance, Ruth hints that she receives special favors
from Miss Geraldine. This habit annoys Kathy, who usually suspects that Ruth is lying and quarrels
with her over it. However, Ruth’s pretending also shows her earnest desire to believe in hopeful
possibilities. At Hailsham, her hints about Miss Geraldine reflect her longing for affection from a
caring adult. At the Cottages, Ruth indulges in the fantasy of her “dream future” and pins her hopes
on the vague story of her “possible,” or a person who resembles her and from whose DNA she may
have been cloned, in Norfolk.

Ruth can be capricious and unkind to both Tommy and Kathy. In her attempts to fit in at the
Cottages, she often ignores and mocks both of them. However, Ruth has the capacity for deep
generosity and thoughtfulness as well. When Kathy loses her Judy Bridgewater tape at Hailsham, for
instance, Ruth marshals their classmates to search for it and then gifts her a different tape as a
substitute. Later, Ruth also offers Kathy and Tommy the gift of Madame’s address, which
demonstrates Ruth’s inherent hopefulness because that she believes Kathy and Tommy still have the
chance to ask Madame for a deferral on their donations. Through the offering of Madame’s address,
Ruth shows her sincere desire to make amends for keeping Kathy and Tommy apart.

Tommy
Tommy is Kathy’s close childhood friend, for whom she also harbors romantic feelings. At Hailsham,
Tommy becomes an outcast among his peers because, unlike them, he lacks artistic ability. He
develops a violent temper, often throwing tantrums in response to teasing from his peers. Tommy
remains anxious and self-conscious about his artistic abilities as a young adult, initially keeping his
artwork a secret at the Cottages. However, he also begins to derive pride and personal satisfaction
from drawing. His compelling imaginary animals resist interpretation, reflecting the deep humanity
and complex individuality of the clones themselves.

Tommy is in many ways more straightforward than Kathy and Ruth, often missing the subtle digs and
sarcasm that they shoot back and forth. While Kathy often knowingly defends Ruth’s pretenses in
front of others, Tommy usually expresses his confusion or doubt aloud. He also lacks the kind of
emotional restraint that Kathy and Ruth exhibit. While Kathy and Ruth tend to express their angers
and frustrations indirectly, Tommy is prone to violent temper tantrums. Yet Tommy also has vey
different relationships with Ruth and Kathy. He maintains a longstanding but difficult romantic
relationship with Ruth, who at times belittles and ignores him. Meanwhile, he bonds with Kathy over
their mutual desire to discover the truth about Hailsham. Tommy tends to trust Kathy with his
biggest secrets, including his odd conversations with Miss Lucy. In his theorizing with Kathy, Tommy
also shows an observant and reflective side to his personality that mirrors her own.

Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations

Some of the novel’s more poignant moments involve the conflict between characters’ individual
goals and the social world governing those characters. The novel’s clones make plans for their
futures as though they might be allowed to live their own, fulfilling lives—even as they know, in the
back of their minds, that these plans are either impossible or highly improbable. Ruth wants, above
all, to have a “normal” office job; only Kathy seems to realize that this idea of an office work-life is
derived from an advertisement Ruth has seen, since Ruth has no first-hand experience of finding
such a job. Kathy, for her part, worries that her libido is “unnaturally strong,” and that perhaps her
“original,” or clone parent, was a part of society’s “lower strata,” and therefore passed along to
Kathy a host of sexual urges and desires.
The novel’s stark, underlying reality, however, is that the students at Hailsham have no future—their
lives are utterly predetermined, and there is nothing they can “choose,” in terms of personal life or
career, once they leave for the Cottages. The only allowable jobs are carer, followed by donor. That
is, neither Kathy nor Tommy nor Ruth is able to change his or her fate—they all become carers and
then donors. But Ishiguro seems to contend that, within this rigid framework, the clones can
maintain a humanity, a loving outlook towards others, and a modicum of personal freedom. This
freedom tends to be symbolized most strongly by the Judy Bridgewater tape of the song “Never Let
Me Go,” to which Kathy listens constantly, and which Tommy and Ruth “find” again in Norfolk. Kathy
knows that the song stirs in her the kinds of emotions—of love and human attachment to a child—
that Kathy can never experience. But it is simply the feeling of wanting these attachments that
allows Kathy to feel human and complete, and to live a life that is satisfying to her.

A second, and perhaps more bracing point, relates to all humans, not just to the novel’s clones.
Ishiguro implies that, even as “normal” humans make choices about marriage, children, education,
and career, our lives have a beginning, middle, and end, and there is nothing we can do to avert our
ultimate fate—our death. When Kathy comes to terms with the contours of her life, and her
constrained choices, she does so not really as a clone, but as a human being—someone who is
aware that her life is small, brief, and filled with uncontrollable obstacles. Yet despite all this, life is
more than worth living, and filled with the kinds of joys, large and small, that Kathy discusses in the
novel.

Life, Death, and Humanity

Although the clones have different biological “beginnings” from other human beings in
England—who are glimpsed only fleetingly in the novel, with the exception of the staff at
Hailsham—they live lives notable for their fundamentally “human” qualities. That is, Kathy,
Ruth, and Tommy must learn to live with one another, cope with romantic failures and
excitements, and confront the realities of their own deaths. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy and
the other clones are remarkably passive regarding acceptance of their fates—that they must
donate their organs and then “complete.”
At first, Ishiguro appears to play with the reader’s expectations about this gruesome form of
social donation: he reveals information about the donations slowly, and clearly intends for
the impersonality of this system to shock. But, as the novel goes on, Ishiguro makes a more
masterful and exciting point—that, in fact, the shock we feel at the definitiveness of the
clones’ fate, and their willingness to go along with it, ought to cause us to think about our
own lives, the constraints we accept in them, and the inevitability of our own demise. This
“second shock,” then, shows us that perhaps our own fates are not so different from the
clones’. Although we have a greater variety of choices in our lives, we also must die, and as
we approach death, we have about as much choice as do the clones; whether we “accept”
our deaths or not, we will eventually die.
What is most shocking, too, is the willingness of “normal” members of English society to
hold the clones at arm’s length. Although the reader begins to recognize that Kathy, Ruth,
and Tommy are just like us, the novel’s “normal humans” insist on dismantling institutions
like Hailsham, and the notion of “postponements” and other human facets of clone life are
revealed to be baseless rumors. Much of Kathy’s adult life has been a lonely one, driving
around the country’s highways and checking in on the donors for whom she cares. The irony
here, then, is complex. Kathy’s loneliness is not so dissimilar from the loneliness of any
normal human professional. But because UK society has decided the clones are
fundamentally different from them, they tightly circumscribe the life-possibilities of the
clones. At the same time, however, the reader sees, in the clones’ transition from student to
carer to donor, similar emotions to “normal” growing up, normal romantic life, normal
professional development.
The reader, in this way, feels fully prepared to acknowledge the humanity of the main
characters, even as society of the novel pushes them to the margins. Kathy is nevertheless
able to salvage, from this, a life of genuine human connections and experiences. Although
she owns little and has no family, she does have her deep and abiding friendships with
Tommy and Ruth, which give her great comfort, even as she approaches her time as a
donor.
The Power of Memory

Kathy copes with the losses in her life by turning to memories of the past. She preserves the memory
of Hailsham long after it has closed, just as she preserves her memories of Tommy and Ruth long
after their deaths. The novel’s title epitomizes this desire to hold on. The phrase “never let me go” is
somewhere between a plea and a demand, reflecting a deeply human need to hold onto, and be
held by, loved ones. Kathy’s memories are her way of holding onto everyone and everything she has
lost. However, Kathy’s memory is also fragmented and somewhat incomplete. Her narrative is a
process of recovery and an attempt to make sense of her memories. She admits to forgetting and
misremembering details, showing that memory is just as fragile as it is powerful. Her first-person
narration also highlights the absence of other characters’ memories. Ruth and Tommy only appear
as reflected through Kathy’s memory, which means that their own thoughts and motivations remain
somewhat ambiguous.

The Dignity of Human Life

Kathy’s narrative is ultimately a testament to the dignity and humanity of the students whom she
remembers. The students have less time than their counterparts in the outside world, but their lives
are as rich with the hopes, joys, disappointments, and sorrows that define human experience.
Kathy’s memories also ironize the efforts of Miss Emily and Madame to demonstrate the students’
humanity through their childhood artwork. Despite their good intentions, both Miss Emily and
Madame feel revulsion towards the students whose lives they seek to improve. Kathy, meanwhile,
shares the memories of her loved ones with quiet dignity and tenderness. Her narrative speaks for
itself, showing the depths of her humanity in ways that Madame and Miss Emily are not capable of
doing.

Brief Biography of Kazuo Ishiguro

Born in Japan but raised primarily in the UK (where his father worked as an oceanographic scientist),
Kazuo Ishiguro was a student at the University of Kent, and later earned a master’s degree in
creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Ishiguro achieved global renown for his novel The
Remains of the Day, which won the Booker Prize in 1989. Many of Ishiguro’s works are characterized
by “dramatic irony,” wherein the reader knows more about the narrator’s life than the narrator
does. This device has a long literary history, and is used to particular effect in Never Let Me Go, as
the reader learns about the novel’s alternate universe through Kathy’s description of her life.
Ishiguro is still writing today and resides in London.