Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Speculative fiction in which a group of children raised in a British boarding school are aware that their destiny is to serve as clones, donating their organs until they 'complete' and die. Although the clones accept their fate with humility, when two of them fall in love, they dare to hope for a deferment that will allow them to experience love for a brief time before they fulfil their mission. A philosophical meditation on what it means to be human and to sacrifice one's life for another.

Style:

Themes: love, sacrifice, coming-of-age, human nature, prejudice.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)

A novel that charts the recent history of Afghanistan through the experiences of two boys, Amir and Hassan. Amir is wealthy, educated and a Pashtun, the ethnic group which holds power in Afghanistan. Hassan by contrast is the son of a servant, uneducated, has a cleft lip and is a Hazara, a minority ethnic group much discriminated against. Nevertheless the boys are best friends until Hassan's devotion to Amir leads him to danger. Moved by fear and cowardice, Amir betrays Hassan and it is only years later, when he has resettled in California and the Taliban is ruling Afghanistan, that he has the opportunity to atone and 'be good again'.

Style: non-linear narrative, first person.

Themes: love, secrets, betrayal, sacrifice, prejudice, evil.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)

A novel that charts the recent history of Afghanistan through the experiences of two boys, Amir and Hassan. Amir is wealthy, educated and a Pashtun, the ethnic group which holds power in Afghanistan. Hassan by contrast is the son of a servant, uneducated, has a cleft lip and is a Hazara, a minority ethnic group much discriminated against. Nevertheless the boys are best friends until Hassan's devotion to Amir leads him to danger. Moved by fear and cowardice, Amir betrays Hassan and it is only years later, when he has resettled in California and the Taliban is ruling Afghanistan, that he has the opportunity to atone and 'be good again'.

Style/structure: non-linear narrative, first person.

Themes: love, secrets, betrayal, sacrifice, prejudice, evil.

Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)

McEwan's tale of aspiring writer Briony’s childhood lie and its disastrous results upon the lives of her sister and the man she loves beautifully evokes the interwar period and the shattering effect of the second world war. Briony’s quest for atonement and her subsequent writing career lead to an exploration of the nature of writing itself.

Style/structure: post-modernist novel, non-linear narrative

Themes: betrayal, atonement, guilt, love, family, writing, social class, effects of war

Brave New World

The End of the Affair

Paradise Lost

Miss Garnet's Angel

Donne's Elegies

The Odyssey

The Knight's Tale