Never Let Me Go
British and Japanese novelist, born 1954. Won the Costa Novel Award in 1986 and the Booker Prize in 1989.
Never Let Me Go is a 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005.
On 8 of the 16 lists it was eligible for.
The Novel Index earns a small commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our rankings. More about how we earn.
At a glance
- Author
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- First published
- 2005
- Length
- 304 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Booker Prize shortlist, 2005
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Speculative, Dystopian, Coming of age
Is Never Let Me Go worth reading?
8 of the 16 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian) and The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk, 2014) | Listed | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 2005) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 57 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian, 2019) | No. 4 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 9 | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 59 | See the list |
| The 100 greatest British novels (BBC Culture, 2015) | No. 34 | See the list |
Best edition of Never Let Me Go
The edition we link to is the Faber & Faber paperback (2010), 304 pages.
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber (paperback, 2010)
- Pages
- 304
- ISBN
- 9780571258093
How critics, prizes and readers rate Never Let Me Go
Critics rate it most highly: it earned 65% of the points available on critics' lists, against 33% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 22% on prize lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Never Let Me Go
If you liked Never Let Me Go, try The Remains of the Day, An Artist of the Floating World or Klara and the Sun.
