Books: Living on Borrowed Time

Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go combines sci-fi, existential tragedy and a big fat surprise

Whatever else the internet has done for or to the English language, it has popularized a very useful phrase that I will now invoke: spoiler alert. If you want to get the full effect of Kazuo Ishiguro's chilling, intensely moving novel Never Let Me Go (Knopf; 288 pages), read no further than the end of this paragraph. Never Let Me Go is the story of three people--Kathy, Tommy and Ruth--who at first appear to be ordinary children attending an exclusive and indefinably creepy but otherwise ordinary English boarding school. The only other thing you need to know is that the book...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!