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their fate? …Most of the things that concern them concern us all, but with them it is concertinaed into this relatively short period of time. These are things that really interest me and, having come to the realization that I probably have limited opportunities to explore these things, that’s what I want to concentrate on.” How do these remarks relate to your own ideas about the book? [Interview with Nicholas Wroe, The Guardian, February 2, 2005.]

FIRST READ THE BOOK, THEN SEE THE MOVIE

DISCUSSING BOOKS INTO MOVIES

Is the plot unchanged, or has it been simplified or otherwise altered for the film? If it has been changed, in what ways? Which elements of the story have been heightened, and which diminished? Why do you suppose the changes were made, and what is the overall effect of the revision?

Did the book’s author have a role in the screenplay, either as writer or advisor? If yes, is the author’s viewpoint evident and how does it affect the film? If no, is the author’s viewpoint successfully or unsuccessfully conveyed?

Have any characters been cut or added? If the main characters are essentially unaltered, how do the actors playing the main characters interpret their roles? Do the actors bring a different kind of meaning to the role than you had seen when you read the book? Does the physical appearance of the actors seem right for the characters?

Different kinds of dialogue work better either on the page or on the screen. Are there any examples where exchanges are more vivid or memorable when read or, conversely, when seen?

How does the film handle challenging moments when characters are thinking but not speaking? Is the film effective in conveying the feelings and thoughts of the characters?

Is the film set in the same location(s) as the book? How do the scenic aspects of the film compare with how you imagined the setting when you read the book? Does the film’s cinematography heighten your understanding of the original?

Does the camera sometimes assume a different point of view from that of the narrator in the book? What can one medium do that the other can’t?

Does the film open new ways of thinking about the book? Or, on the other hand, does the film seem insignificant or trivial, compared with your experience of the book?

Increasingly, especially with popular novels and plays, more than one film version exists. What can you learn by comparing the versions and interpretations? How does a film version date itself where the book appears to be timeless?

How would you have conceived, written, or directed the film differently?

In the case where you’ve seen the film first, the focus of the previous questions can be turned around for a different kind of comparison where you’re comparing how the book stands up to the movie experience. What is your experience of the book after having seen the movie first? Has the book made clearer any aspects of the film? Did the film convey certain things better?

This Is a Borzoi Book

Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright © 2005 by Kazuo Ishiguro

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ishiguro, Kazuo [date]

Never let me go / Kazuo Ishiguro.

p. cm.

1. Women—Fiction. 2. England—Fiction. 3. Cloning—Fiction. 4. Organ donors—Fiction. 5. Donation of organs, tissues, etc.—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6059.S5N48 2005

823′.914—dc22 2004048966

eISBN: 978-1-4000-4483-2

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