Looking to identify the font used in Never Let Me Go

October 18, 2007 6:30 PM

Can anyone tell me what font is used in this edition of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go?

I don't know much about typography, but the font struck me as unusual for a novel. Maybe it isn't. Bonus points if you can point me to other novels set in the same font.

If it makes a difference, this is an American edition.

posted by scarylarry to media & arts (7 comments total)

I have a very similar font called AMARILLO USAF, but the corners are angled rather than rounded...

http://www.dafont.com/amarillo-usaf.font

I'll keep an eye out for an exact match though.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 6:34 PM on October 18, 2007

Oh, I'm sorry for the confusion. I meant the font used for the body of the text, not the cover titles.

Unfortunately, I guess the publisher hasn't released the book for amazon's 'search inside' feature...so I guess this question is only answerable if you have a copy of the book on hand.
posted by scarylarry at 6:42 PM on October 18, 2007

If you can scan it or photgraph it, use this.
posted by signal at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2007

It appears to be Bembo Schoolbook.
posted by dyoneo at 7:29 PM on October 18, 2007

Thanks, dyoneo! Not that I have a great eye for these things, but that looks right to me.

Am I right in thinking that it is an uncommon choice? It was strange enough to catch my eye, and when I thought about it, my subjective impression was that it had a less mechanical, more 'human' feel than typefaces I'm used to seeing in novels--and this resonated nicely with Ishiguro's themes here....
posted by scarylarry at 7:34 PM on October 18, 2007

I don't remember having seen it used in a novel before, and it is oddly successful at capturing a certain mood at loose in the book - although I read it a little differently from you. It seemed to me, with all its earnest roundnesses and fussy serifs, to be somewhat awkwardly caught between the natural and the artificial, like a machine trying to write like a human, or a child like an adult.

Interesting the work good design can almost invisibly do.
posted by dyoneo at 8:05 PM on October 18, 2007

Bembo Schoolbook differs from the original Bembo (which first appeared in 1495) in two ways: the lowercase a and the lowercase g. They look more like the letterforms taught to children, hence the “Schoolbook” designation.
posted by tepidmonkey at 8:06 PM on October 18, 2007