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Why we can't let go of Never Let Me Go

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Manage episode 473006982 series 98598
Content provided by The New Statesman. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by The New Statesman or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Kazuo Ishiguro's most popular novel is as relevant today as when it was published 20 years ago.


--


When it was published in 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go was acclaimed by critics and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.


Twenty years on – having been adapted for stage and screen and adopted as a set text for schools – it is Ishiguro’s most read work, and is considered a modern classic.


Why does this profoundly settling book continue to absorb us? And what does it tell us about the role novels play in helping us grapple with the ethical dilemmas created by advances in science and technology?


The critic David Sexton has been re-reading Never Let Me Go and joins Tom Gatti on the Culture from the New Statesman to discuss the impact of Ishiguro's most popular work.


RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE:

Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, Samantha Harvey, on her novel Orbital - and how "political choices are sculpting the surface of the earth"

https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/culture-podcast/2024/11/booker-prize-winner-samantha-harvey-political-choices-are-sculpting-the-surface-of-the-earth


READ

David's essay: Kazuo Ishiguro's everyday dystopia

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/03/kazuo-ishiguro-never-let-me-go-everyday-dystopia


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1137 episodes

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iconShare
 
Manage episode 473006982 series 98598
Content provided by The New Statesman. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by The New Statesman or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Kazuo Ishiguro's most popular novel is as relevant today as when it was published 20 years ago.


--


When it was published in 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go was acclaimed by critics and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.


Twenty years on – having been adapted for stage and screen and adopted as a set text for schools – it is Ishiguro’s most read work, and is considered a modern classic.


Why does this profoundly settling book continue to absorb us? And what does it tell us about the role novels play in helping us grapple with the ethical dilemmas created by advances in science and technology?


The critic David Sexton has been re-reading Never Let Me Go and joins Tom Gatti on the Culture from the New Statesman to discuss the impact of Ishiguro's most popular work.


RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE:

Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, Samantha Harvey, on her novel Orbital - and how "political choices are sculpting the surface of the earth"

https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/culture-podcast/2024/11/booker-prize-winner-samantha-harvey-political-choices-are-sculpting-the-surface-of-the-earth


READ

David's essay: Kazuo Ishiguro's everyday dystopia

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/03/kazuo-ishiguro-never-let-me-go-everyday-dystopia


GO AD-FREE

Subscribers can listen to all episodes ad-free in the New Statesman app:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=US&pli=1


SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Get the best of our reporting direct to your inbox every weekend with The Saturday Read.

Sign up at saturdayread.substack.com


BECOME A SUBSCRIBER

Full access from £8.99 per month: https://secure.newstatesman.com/offer


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  continue reading

1137 episodes

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