288 pages
English language
Published Oct. 28, 2006 by Vintage International.
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human. Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.
The dystopian premise that's central but hardly the point narrows and sharpens this otherwise moving English boarding school story of childhood misinterpretations, loves, obsessions growing into adult reframing, acquiescence, and ailing concerns to an objective study of universal questions.
Content warning Spoiler Alert.
Apparently, when I finished this book, I never wrote a review... which is insane to think about but I'll try and write one now (despite it being around a year later). I loved this story. As a British teenager I have always loved the platonic and romantic dynamic that boarding schools encourage and, as such, thoroughly enjoyed how different relations played out throughout this tale. Furthermore, the addition of science-fiction elements allowed for the exemplification of narrative elements and enigmas ergo drawing the audience even further into the strange world of Hailsham. I will likely revisit this book many times throughout my life to feel what I felt whilst reading it for the first time; to walk the halls of Hailsham; to watch the football games on the field; to stare into the ambiguous forest across the accommodation windows.
I picked this randomly, I've never read one of his books before, but I'm glad I did!
It's such an interesting book, the writing is surprisingly fitting for the story. It's such a nice way to build the world through someones eyes, that doesn't see how weird it is. I thought it would change on a specific direction after a certain plot point, but it didn't. It's strange to think about how they would think and what things they wouldn't even question. Why they wouldn't start a revolution, never even consider it. They are just so used to how things are laid out for them, it's just how it's supposed to be for them. I'm looking forward to his other books!
