An Unfortunate Coincidence

After much sulking and complaining, I couldn't quite help buying the much-discussed 'Never Let Me Go' when I saw it nestled among the other books on the shelf.

Never Let Me Go, just in case you haven't heard of it, is a major motion picture, released in the Cinema a few months ago.

The genre is a hybrid between romance and speculative fiction, two of my favourite genres to read and to write.

'Masterly...A novel with piercing questions about humanity and humaneness' says the Sunday Times.

'A page-turner and a heartbreaker, a tour de force of knotted tension and buried anguish' says Time.

It has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

The author, Kazuo Ishiguro, is Japenese. His writing style is simple; his use of short sentences is effective and makes for easy reading.

Regardless of my opinion on the author's writing style, the book itself has been a huge success since it was reverted into a film, directed from the screenplay written by Alex Garland, author of 'The Beach', not long ago.

My only issue is that Kazuo Ishiguro got there first.

I had been writing a very similar story-line for my final year dissertation, and I was told it was a very 'promising' idea. Having discarded the idea for something else for my assignment, it stayed undeveloped for quite some time before I continued writing.

I learnt of the unfortunate coincidence of similarity between my story and Kazuo's through a friend on Facebook, who posted a link to it on my wall. To say I was gutted would be an understatement and when I tell you the storyline is literally the same it is no exaggeration. The only difference between the two, is that mine lacks a love-story. Go Kazuo.

I'm not suggesting that I should have been the only person brilliant enough to think up such a storyline, and I'm not suggesting that I could have had it published had I submitted it. Kuzuo's version has been out for quite some time, and I was unfortunate enough to believe I had touched upon a subject that had never before been written about.

I am saying, however, that with the right tools and guidance, had I managed to get it published, I'd be in a much better position that I am now.

I won't elaborate on the details of the book, as I wouldn't want to spoil it for those who haven't read the book or seen the film.

What I will say, however, is that I'll be nursing the wound of Kazuo's success for a very long time.