Kathy, Ruth and Tommy are students at Hailsham, an exclusive board school in England. It is very secluded, and the students never leave the grounds. As the story unfolds through the eyes of a grown-up Kathy, it becomes clear that there is something very strange about the school, the staff and the students. The students are treated as though they are very special, and there is no contact or mention of any parents. As the students get a little older, there is some mention of "donations", but it isn't explained to the reader. The second part of the novel deals with these three students moving on to the next step of their journey by going to the Cottages. There, we learn more about the future of all the students. The final section of the book deal with the trio as adults and their ultimate fate.
This is my book club's selection for December. I found it to be very slow-moving and vague. It took quite a while to find out what was really going on with the students. Near the end of the book, there was a discussion about the ethics of the "program" and that did open up an opportunity to see some parallels to our world. This has been made into a movie, and I've ordered it on Netflix, so I'll be interested to see how it translates to film.
A Man Book Prize Finalist
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