'I had the idea years ago and I have a big folder containing notes for what I called 'The students novel'. Words like 'complete', and 'donations' creep into the text hinting at the reality of what's going on. Smoking, or anything detrimental to their health, is not permitted. Hailsham is a dystopian commune where the teenagers can't ever have children. Never Let Me Go is, however, the antithesis, as it's set in the most surreal of worlds. All of these books are a delicate balance of attention to detail and nuanced subtlety, which show Ishiguro's mastery of realism. His best-known work – thanks to the Merchant Ivory film adaptation – is The Remains of the Day, which won him the Booker Prize.

His first book, A Pale View of the Hills, was published when he was 28, and was followed four years later by An Artist of the Floating World, which won the Whitbread Prize. Of his other novels, those words mostly apply to The Unconsoled, a dark tale of a placeless world where nothing is as it seems. In the reviews I've read recently, the words 'strange' or 'sinister' keep coming up.' 'I see this as a very different kind of book,' says Kazuo Ishiguro, 'but I don't think it's as strange as some people do. Her account of what happened in the past and her subsequent career form the backbone of a compelling, sinister story and is far removed from the author's previous work. The narrative centres on Kathy's time spent at Hailsham, a boarding school cut off from the world around it. I'm 31 years old, and I've been a carer now for over 11 years.' The word 'carer' conjures up images of nurses or home help, but as this story unfolds its meaning is far more unsettling. The narrator tells us, 'My name is Kathy H.

The opening lines of Kazuo Ishiguro's new book, Never Let Me Go are chillingly innocuous. Sinéad Gleeson meets the writer finds meaning in responsibility In his latest book, Never Let Me Go, this is taken to a sinister extreme. Kazuo Ishiguro's characters are often compelled by a sense of duty.

Books like never let me go