first published in 2005, is set in England in the 1990s, in a similar but alternate world. The narrator Kathy H. is a 31 year old woman who spends her days as a "carer." Her job involves traveling between recovery centers and helping "donors" to recuperate after giving a "donation." While working as a carer Kathy reminisces about Hailsham, an English boarding school where she grew up. The students never leave Hailsham and are kept in the dark about what is in store for them in the future. They are told that they are special and that they are expected to be creative and keep up their health. As the story evolves Kathy and her close friends Ruth and Tommy become more clearly aware of their sinister fate but never question it. The novel places a dystopia in the quiet English countryside that may serve as a parable for anyone growing up as a 'civilized' human being.
The book was shortlisted 2005 for the Booker prize, 2006 for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award. It also received an ALA Alex Award in 2006.
A British film adaptation and a TBS television drama adaptation of the same title were made in 2010 and 2016 respectively. A Japanese stage adaptation called Watashi wo Hanasanaide was produced in 2014.
Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2017. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, 8 November 1954. His family moved to England in 1960 when he was five. Before the Nobel Prize Ishiguro received four Man Booker Prize nominations and won the 1989 prize for his novel The Remains of the Day. In 2008, The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".