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Never Let Me Go is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and was published in 2005. It is set in the 1990s. However,

Ishiguro’s version of 1990s society is not one that readers will recognise. A dystopia exists where

many individuals are cloned from other people in order to be used as organ donors. 

The narrator, Kathy H, is an adult who is looking back at events that occurred when she was a pupil at Hailsham

school. Her narration often leaps from the past to the present. Kathy and her friends, Ruth and Tommy, along with all the other pupils at Hailsham, are among those who have been cloned for the purpose of organ donation. 

Completion, (or death) usually occurs after the fourth organ donation.

Personally, I found this book compelling and horrifying in equal measure. I think the real premise of the book was to question the way a whole society can ignore/accept something so incomprehensible. However, many in group found it slow and bland, not enjoying the way it was written at all.

Margaret, Discussion Leader

This novel is a startlingly vivid and distinctive gothic tale.  It tells the story of sisters, September and July, and their mother Sheela.  The sisters are joined by a deep bond and power play, while their mother leaves them to their own devices and lives a reclusive life.

After a tragic accident they move to a relative's house, which has a life of its own. Here, the novel, with many twists and turns, is played out.

Most members felt that this book was a challenge to read but was a clever, engaging and well-written book.  It was felt that the author incorporated a lot of modern day issues in the storyline i.e., Internet dating, ghosting, fake ID’s, on-line bullying, teenage peer pressure, abandonment, depression, mental illness and living a life with no boundaries.

We debated whether or not we would recommend the book to others to read and, in the end, decided that we would be careful who we recommended it to. 

The members assigned the book scores ranging from 4 to 8.5, with the majority giving it a score of 8.

Libby, Discussion Leader & Julia, Book Club Coordinator

The basic storyline is “When Charlotte regains consciousness after an accident, she finds herself living a stranger’s life. The previous five years are a blank, and her husband, Henri, and daughter, Ada, are strangers. Arriving at their family chateau in southern France, she hopes to regain her memories. Instead she feels isolated and unsettled. Strange events hint at underlying darkness and menace. Charlotte doesn’t know who to trust.

Did she really have an affair with their charming Irish neighbour, as her enigmatic mother-in-law suggests? And what of Henri? He seems loving and kind, a good parent, but Charlotte is wary. Then there is Ada, a little girl who just wants her mother back.

With the help of her friend and fellow Australian Susannah, Charlotte starts to piece together events, but her newfound confidence is shaken with news that puts a deadline on her quest". 

The group had quite varying opinions of this book although unpacking the features of a gothic novel helped us all to understand it.  Some thought it suspenseful gothic combined with the supernatural.   While others of our group felt it was not well written, predictable and not worth reading, as some aspects of the novel weren’t followed through.  The scores ranged from 3 to 8, with an average of 5.5/10.

Robyn, Discussion Leader & Julia, Book Club Coordinator

This book is narrated by Kevin’s mother, Eva as she writes a series of letters to her former husband, Franklin, giving her full account of the years leading up to the day their son murdered nine classmates and a teacher. Kevin showed psychopathic tendencies since infancy, especially to his mother. But over and over his father refused to believe her and made excuses for Kevin. Trapped between the expectation of what it means to be a mother, a parent’s perceived responsibility for a child’s actions, and a terrorizing son, she was between a rock and a hard place. Until one day, it was too late.

This book is deeply unsettling and often difficult to read, but it is also an undeniably brilliant feat. It deals with the themes of nature versus nurture, a dysfunctional family and society’s need to find someone to blame, in this case the vilification of Eva.

The writing pulls the reader into an intimate relationship with the narrator and the language is superb. It is sometimes uncomfortable and horrifying, but also very important. I highly recommend it.

Marg, Discussion Leader

The Imitator is a historical novel and thriller loosely based on a true story of a female MI5 agent recruited on the eve of WWII. 

Protagonist Evelyn Varley, described in one review as a classic outsider, is determined to escape the mundane life awaiting in her home town of Lewes.  A scholarship to a posh girls' school offers an escape and she seizes it, quickly adapting her accent and attitudes to fit in with her wealthier peers. 

Friendship with the wealthy family of schoolmate Sally offers another lifeline: the 'clever' Evelyn is forced to work as a shop girl before the Wesleys' connections secure her a job in government.  Assuming yet another identity as a fascist after her move to MI5, Evelyn's loyalty to friends, family, King and country are tested as she works to expose a ring of Nazi sympathisers. With few people to trust, caught in a web of secrets and lies, she begins to lose her sense of herself and increasingly questions her feelings, and the choice that ends in her disgrace.  

Well paced and written, it's an enjoyable read covering familiar themes in wartime Britain. 

Karen, Discussion Leader

A small book translated to English from Korean is described as ‘chilling, suspenseful and disconcerting.’

It begins with the murder of Hae-On, a beautiful young teenage woman, as a classic detective story.  Two young male contemporaries are questioned, both were the last to see her alive, by a detective who seems to be incompetent.  The story quickly moves into a much deeper and nuanced tale of discrepancies of justice between rich and poor, life, death and grief.

 Hae-On’s family, her mother and sister, are deeply entrenched in grief. The sister, Da-On, obsessively takes extreme measures to look like her dead sister and discover who the murderer is. She continues for seventeen years in this endeavour.

The narration is shared between Da-On and two high school friends, Taerim and Sanghui.  Each telling their stories, interactions with each other and descent into madness for Taerim after another terrible crime which is also unsolved.  There is much beautiful prose regarding life, death and grief in this mystery.

Libby, Discussion Leader

Breath is by Tim Winton AO, one of Australia’s most prolific writers.

He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles Franklin Award four times. 

The story is about coming-of-age and centres around two teenage boys who are from opposite types of parents in a sleepy, little mill town in the Great Southern. The characters are drawn together through boredom and soon find themselves bonding by causing riverside panic.

It’s a story of testing one’s limits against nature, finding like-minded souls, and discovering just how far one breath will take you. It’s a story of extremes—extreme sports and extreme emotions.

Julia, Discussion Leader

“The Strays”, the debut novel by Australian author Emily Bitto was published in 2014 and won the Stella Prize in 2015.  The story follows Evan and Helena Trentham as they establish a school of modernist artists in Melbourne in the 1930s, by inviting a number of artists to live and work in their large home.  Although this is a work of fiction, it is clear that Bitto was influenced by the “Heidi Circle”, a group of avant-garde painters, intellectuals, artists and writers who, in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, lived and worked at “Heidi”, Melbourne for extended periods of time.

Lily, the narrator of the story, is befriended by one of the Trentham daughters on her first day at school, aged 8.  Over the following 8 years, Lily is increasingly drawn to, and into, the Trentham family and “circle”, finding the lack of rules and restrictions there an appealing contrast to being an only child of conservative, middle-class parents.

Lily describes how she and the three Trentham daughters are essentially neglected, being left to their own devices and allowed to do what they want, while the adults self-indulge in their art and bohemian lifestyle.  The young girls witness and participate in activities that, arguably, they should not experience at their ages.  These experiences have deep impacts on their development and adult lives and it is perhaps not surprising that all four end up paying huge prices for those years of neglect.

Bitto writes beautifully, with figurative language used throughout, making the text lyrical and poetic, but she is also able to evoke people and places with a few well-chosen, concise sentences. 

This is a book about the desires and strivings to lead unconventional lives and becoming extraordinary, but Bitto tackles many issues in this story; idealists serving the ‘noble cause’ of art; society’s reaction to avant-garde art; neglectful parenting which later creates dysfunctional relationships; girlhood friendships and coming-of-age; loyalty and betrayal; and envy and jealousy, to name a few.  As a consequence, it can be difficult to determine a central focus in the story: is it about leading an unconventional life and becoming remarkable?  For me, this apparent lack of a main focus distracted only slightly from finding the book a very engaging and enjoyable read.  Others in the group appeared to feel the same, with the scores ranging from 6-10 and an overall score of 8.2, which puts it in the top 5 of all the books we’ve read. 

Carol, Book Club Coordinator

This book is regarded by some as a ‘novella’, as it is short (this one is about 180 pages) and focuses on one or two main themes and characters.  Haruf wrote it when he was (knowingly) dying with cancer, completing it just a few days before he died.  I felt that these circumstances were reflected in the narrative; there is a prominent carpe diem philosophy throughout it and an ending which seemed rather sinister to me, although some may find a note of optimism in it.  

As with all of Haruf’s stories, this one is set in the fictional, small, rural town of Holt, Colorado.  Two elderly, lonely people and one courageous proposal lead to companionship and happiness, albeit for a limited period of time, as a consequence of close-minded, bigoted people and coercive control.

This is a simple, beautifully-written and poignant story.  It is skillfully crafted; the pasts of the two main characters are slowly revealed through their conversations with each other, and the characters of others in the story are exposed with just a few, apt lines of text.

Most of the group appreciated and enjoyed the book, with a range of scores of 5 to 9.

Carol, Discussion Leader