There are times when you are listening to the radio, and a song almost faded from your memory, starts playing. You are taken aback. In this sunny car drive through the deserted lands, you did not expect that in the next corner you would be surprised by a song from your childhood, or maybe a song your mother used to sing and hum while preparing a meal. It is a pleasant feeling to be left astound like that, because as more it is unexpected, it is equally soulful and kind. Something of this sort happened with me as I picked reading “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book is somewhere strangely classified as a science fiction, but it might be one of the most humane book I ever read. Kazuo Ishiguro has been awarded with the Noble Prize in Literature, and once you read a few of his books, you will know why.
This article may contain spoilers, so you may avert reading it hereafter. But the book is very more than the basic storyline. The story is written in first person by Kathy, who is 31 and has been a carer in a centre so far. She takes us back to Hailsham, a boarding school where she grew up. Initially it simply feels like a normal boarding school with different kinds of students. But as the characters grow, the story grows too. This is a special school where students are not natural children, but are clones of people from random people. They are raised so that when time comes, there organs can be donated to cure cancer, MND, critical diseases of people. The students are not considered as humans with a soul, but only organisms of whose organs can be harvested. But a person whether grown in a test-tube, or in a womb, certainly develops relationships with people, feels emotions, and certainly has a soul. Here the friendship between three of such donors, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, has been discussed at length. The uncertainty of their life and a means to find some extra time together, is what keeps them going. And in this journey comes the many emotions such as rivalry, jealousy, and nevertheless the affection they have for each other.
The book is simple yet complex, it is intricately woven and detailed. And the story unfolds literally like drops melting down from a glacier, only to reveal the warmth of ambers within. I came across this book without knowing anything about it, and it has left me touched. You can buy the book from Amazon.
Aali Pant 