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** spoiler alert ** On September 15, 2010, a movie adaptation of this book will be shown, distributed by Fox Pictures, in the US. It stars Keira Knightley (Ruth), Sally Hawkins (Miss Lucy), Andrew Garfield (Tommy), and Carey Mulligan (Kathy). Two of my GR-TFG friends are currently reading this and a number of them have either marked this to read or added this to their wish lists. However, three of my GR American friends have read this and rated this 5 or 4 stars. Thus, for my Filipino friends, I have activated the ***SPOILER ALERT***.

Never Let Me Go is my 2nd book by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro (1954-). Like his 1989 Man Booker winner Remains of the Day, the writing is superb. It does not use big words and does not dish out deep profound ideas but when you are done reading till the last page, you always have the urge to go back and read again from the start. You think that you just breezed through the first part until in the end you realized that you made a mistake of just breezing through that part.

I almost did not give this a 5-star because early this year, I read and liked Neal Shusterman's Unwind (published 2007). Kazuo Ishiguro published his Never Let Me Go in 2005 so you know who inspired who. Both are dystopian novels although Shusterman made his book intended for young adult (YA) while Ishiguro's writing is, I think, intended for everyone. No wonder that this book is included in TIME Magazine's Best 100 Novels.

Both books are about young people being used as organ donors. In Unwind, they are those normal people who are not achievers. In Never Let Me Go, however, they are cloned from models. They are part of the government experiment to supply the organs of sick people and unlike in Unwind where the donor's organs are harvested one time, in this book, the harvesting is done one organ at a time until the donor is "completed" or dead.

It's that kind of novel that is ideal for a horror Stephen King movie. However, with Ishiguro's astute plot development and bewildering narrative, this will more likely put a tear in your eyes rather that scare the hell out of you.

There are many scenes that I was able to relate to. Kathy's hesitancy to buy the music tape was like that movie I saw with my father when he was still alive. For many years, I looked for that movie. Then in 2008, I saw a copy in Ohio (during my US trip) but I did not buy it. I felt, while holding the DVD copy, that the memories of sitting beside my father is enough and I did not need to see the movie to once again feel how happy I was munching popcorn while watching the soldiers and the Indians falling off the ravine.

*Salutes* Ishiguro!