Why we can't let go of Never Let Me Go

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The New Statesman

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4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Kazuo Ishiguro's most popular novel is as relevant today as when it was published 20 years ago.

When it was published in 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go was acclaimed by critics and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Twenty years on – having been adapted for stage and screen and adopted as a set text for schools – it is Ishiguro’s most read work, and is considered a modern classic.

Why does this profoundly settling book continue to absorb us? And what does it tell us about the role novels play in helping us grapple with the ethical dilemmas created by advances in science and technology?

The critic David Sexton has been re-reading Never Let Me Go and joins Tom Gatti on the Culture from the New Statesman to discuss the impact of Ishiguro's most popular work.

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Transcript

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