Kazuo Ishiguro "Don't Leave Me."

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Title: Never Let Me Go Original title: Never Let Me Go Genre: science fiction Medical topic: transplants Year of first publication: 2005 Description: The protagonists of the novel are friends—Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy—students at the elite Hailsham School, located in the heart of the English countryside. Everything seems outwardly normal—children up to the age of 16 live in a boarding school, teachers oversee their education, emphasizing artistic expression, physical health, and all forms of creativity. Friendships, first loves, and sexual relationships develop, and conflicts arise between the students and the teachers. However, none of the students at this unique school ever leaves it, and no one from the outside ever comes to visit, except for Madame, whose task was to select the students’ most beautiful artworks to be displayed in the mysterious Gallery. The time comes to ask questions: Who are we? What is the purpose of our lives? What was the Gallery for? One of the teachers, unable to reconcile herself with keeping the students in constant ignorance, reveals to them that they will never fulfill their dreams; no one will become an actor, an athlete, or a shop clerk. They were created and raised for a clearly defined purpose—organ donation. Kazuo Ishiguro presents us with an alternative world in which people cannot imagine life without donors, even though it was once unimaginable and unethical; it has since been accepted as necessary and has become the norm. Society treats donors with cold indifference, denying them the right to the feelings they were capable of and the normal life they so desperately desired.