A Booker-winning author, a Nobel prize-winning scientist and the directors of the film and stage adaptations on why Ishiguro’s dystopian tale still speaks to us today• ‘AI will become very good at manipulating emotions’: an exclusive interview with Kazuo IshiguroAnne EnrightBooker-winning author and professor of fiction at University College DublinMy writing students all know and love Never Let Me Go. Year after year, they choose to discuss it more than any other suggested title. These students are all ages but mostly young, so their affinity may have something to do with how tenderly Ishiguro writes about youth, innocence and friendship. The novel contains some of the tropes popular with readers of young adult fiction; there is an elite boarding school with beautiful grounds, various styles of guardian and no sign of any parents. Narrated by Kathy, who tells us about her friends Ruth and Tommy, the style is accessibly conversational and it contains a melancholy seriousnes...
A Guardian article commemorates the 20th anniversary of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" with reflections from author Anne Enright, film director Mark Romanek, and Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, alongside an excerpt from a 2025 Ishiguro interview about AI. They discuss the novel's enduring impact, its themes relevant to molecular biology and artificial intelligence, and the collaborative process of adapting it into film.
