This is book no. 1 on the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list.

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Bought at Unicorn Thrift Store in San Jose, California.

This was just an amazing, excellent book. I wanted to listen to it constantly, because I was so loathe to stop the story. At the beginning, I thought Kath was going to relate a happy, simple story of a girl growing up at an artsy boarding school, but as each layer of the story was peeled open it became more disturbing and creepy. I suspected what was going on pretty quickly, but it was still wonderful to read and watch the drama unfold.

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Amazon.com Review
All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own.

Offsetting the bizarreness of these revelations is the placid, measured voice of the narrator, Kathy H., a 31-year-old Hailsham alumna who, at the close of the 1990s, is consciously ending one phase of her life and beginning another. She is in a reflective mood, and recounts not only her childhood memories, but her quest in adulthood to find out more about Hailsham and the idealistic women who ran it. Although often poignant, Kathy's matter-of-fact narration blunts the sharper emotional effects you might expect in a novel that deals with illness, self-sacrifice, and the severe restriction of personal freedoms. As in Ishiguro's best-known work, The Remains of the Day, only after closing the book do you absorb the magnitude of what his characters endure. --Regina Marler

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added to jsmeltser's 1001 Bookbox!

Hijacking from the 1001 box :)

Really enjoyed this book. The characters were very realistic in the unrealistic situation they were in. Although, the only one I found I likes was Tommy. Ruth is extremely unlikeable and to me, unsympathetic, and Kathy is too much of a pushover, but in their context it makes sense, because these are people who have been intentionally raised to follow rules and are basically innocent to the rest of the world.

On top of the newspaper vending machine.