Genre Fiction
![Kazuo Ishiguro - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_kazuo_ishiguro.jpg)
Klara and the Sun: A novel
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a poignant meditation on love and loneliness" (The Associated Press). • AGOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick!
"What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice-a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." -Booker Prize committee
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
"What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice-a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." -Booker Prize committee
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
Editorial Reviews
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK •A BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick • ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR •ONE OF BILL GATES'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR •ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Vogue, USA Today, Town & Country, The Guardian, Vulture, and more
"One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written….I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it."
-Maureen Corrigan, NPR
"A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope."
-Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice-a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." -Booker Prize committee
"It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness."
-Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic
"Ishiguro's prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the p...
"One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written….I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it."
-Maureen Corrigan, NPR
"A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope."
-Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice-a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." -Booker Prize committee
"It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness."
-Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic
"Ishiguro's prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the p...
Readers Top Reviews
Sarah-Louise J
This is the most beautiful book. I finished it just moments ago and, though I never usually bother to review things, felt I had to write about the beauty in these pages. Smart, moving and wise, I didn’t know until I reached the final page just how in love with it I had fallen. Or how little I wanted to leave Klara and the world here created by closing the cover. If this doesn’t win awards and make it onto all of the best of the year lists I will be astonished.
M.H.
I am glad that I read this novel, although I am really not sure what the hype was about. It was okay. I enjoyed the first part of the book and the perspective of Klara (a robot) relaying her sights and impressions of life outside the shop window of a busy high street store. I couldn't emotionally connect to any of the characters and found them lifeless, empty and superficial. This could be intentional, and reflecting the narrative viewpoint of the robot (i.e. the limited ability of a robot to fully connect with humans), but I felt this world, and its inhabitants were flat, devoid of real emotions, so that I was fully detached by the end. I wasn't challenged by the themes, and if I was a 13 year old once more, I may have felt the same way. With saying that, it has now been several days since I have finished the novel and my mind does keep returning to it. I cannot think about the sun in the same way, so I guess it has made an impression on me. I just wanted a bit more: realism, detail, explanation of the dystopian world it was set in; character depth, more explicit moral discussion. I feel somewhat empty. I honestly feel gutted not to love this book like some other readers have done.
ArchyMarcusM.H.
Tales of androids / robots / Artificial Friends (in this case) showing empathy and perception towards humans are nothing new. Philip K Dick's We can build you, with its Abraham Lincoln simulacra, was half a century back, for example. Being Ishiguru this is dealt with in far more literary prose, but it still plods along in quite a dull fashion much of the time. Plotwise, the narrator is Klara, an AF (Artificial Friend) to the teenage Josie, who lives an isolated life, aside from neighbour and potential boyfriend Rick, out in the country. She's is suffering from an illness whose cause is not really made specific. In fact in this dystopian future quite a number of things are not quite clear for much of the book. (What, for example, is the pollution spewing Cooting Machine?) Anyway, Klara's job is to observe and learn about Klara, and this she does, though her observations do become rather tiresome after a while. And I'm afraid the huge error she makes in regard to the Sun is simply, for me, not believable for one so otherwise intelligent. And the anti-climatic ending, while poignant, I found unsatisfying. I kept going with this because it was Kazuo Ishiguru and does contain some fine passages, but it was a bit disappointing really.
RegisSamArchyMarc
In an interview to Waterstones, Kazuo Ishiguro commented that the seed of Klara and the Sun was a story for a children's book he had in mind but that was too dark to be published as such (it would traumatize kids, his daughter warned him). That makes total sense to me. There is a delicate fairytale quality in this novel that permeates Klara's voice as the narrator. Not only because of its main theme but also the way the affective relationships are built (the way Chrissie and Josie, Josie and Klara, Chrissie and Klara and Klara and Ricky are bound), there is some significant thematic overlap with AI: Artificial Intelligence (more the Spielberg's part than Kubrick's) and, tangentially, Pinnochio_. Even though the story of KS_ is told by a robot, this is a novel where the whole idea of humanity and human subjectivity is put at the center, and brought up with a very fresh look. It is a study about illness, love, tenderness, faith, all interpreted or acted upon by a being that is not human (or maybe, as the Tyrrell Corporation used to say, "more human than human"), but a very intelligent and sensitive one. Ishiguro says that having an AI as the narrator allowed him to explore all these human themes with a fresh look, making basic questions about humanity a human being would never ask. Indeed, the story told by a robot brings a very distinct flavor to the narrative. Everything is familiar, but at the same time seems strange through Klara's sometimes childish or naïve (however precise) descriptions of what she sees and witnesses. It is as if a very intelligent and sensitive alien came to Earth to observe us, with sharp eyes but no context. KS also brought me good memories about Never Let Me Go, specially the kind of decency and tenderness that Ishiguro masterfully embeds into the action and reactions of his (mostly tragic) characters. There is a strangely self-contained, humble quality but tense underneath Ishiguro's writing which I'm personally fond of, and that also shows in Klara's narrative. There are also many thematic parallels, not only about human genetics, and genetic editing, but also in the way beings (be them clones or robots) are treated as things. Part of the genetic editing subplot in KS (concerning Josie's and Rick's differences) is actually suggested in NLMG when Miss Emily speaks about the Morningdale scandal, dr James Morningdale's offering the possibility of having children with enhanced characteristics. The parallel between Kathy being a carer in NLMG and Klara's looking after Josie in KS was particularly strong to me, more so in the second act. Ishiguro admits KS is in many ways a companion book to NLMG, but with a more positive resolution, a brighter response to the bleak, sad ending of his previous book. In NLMG, w...
Short Excerpt Teaser
When we were new, Rosa and I were mid-store, on the magazines table side, and could see through more than half of the window. So we were able to watch the outside – the office workers hurrying by, the taxis, the runners, the tourists, Beggar Man and his dog, the lower part of the RPO Building. Once we were more settled, Manager allowed us to walk up to the front until we were right behind the window display, and then we could see how tall the RPO Building was. And if we were there at just the right time, we would see the Sun on his journey, crossing between the building tops from our side over to the RPO Building side.
When I was lucky enough to see him like that, I'd lean my face forward to take in as much of his nourishment as I could, and if Rosa was with me, I'd tell her to do the same. After a minute or two, we'd have to return to our positions, and when we were new, we used to worry that because we often couldn't see the Sun from mid-store, we'd grow weaker and weaker. Boy AF Rex, who was alongside us then, told us there was nothing to worry about, that the Sun had ways of reaching us wherever we were. He pointed to the floorboards and said, ‘That's the Sun's pattern right there. If you're worried, you can just touch it and get strong again.'
There were no customers when he said this, and Manager was busy arranging something up on the Red Shelves, and I didn't want to disturb her by asking permission. So I gave Rosa a glance, and when she looked back blankly, I took two steps forward, crouched down and reached out both hands to the Sun's pattern on the floor. But as soon as my fingers touched it, the pattern faded, and though I tried all I could – I patted the spot where it had been, and when that didn't work, rubbed my hands over the floorboards – it wouldn't come back. When I stood up again Boy AF Rex said:
‘Klara, that was greedy. You girl AFs are always so greedy.'
Even though I was new then, it occurred to me straight away it might not have been my fault; that the Sun had withdrawn his pattern by chance just when I'd been touching it. But Boy AF Rex's face remained serious.
‘You took all the nourishment for yourself, Klara. Look, it's gone almost dark.'
Sure enough the light inside the store had become very gloomy. Even outside on the sidewalk, the Tow-Away Zone sign on the lamp post looked gray and faint.
‘I'm sorry,' I said to Rex, then turning to Rosa: ‘I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it all myself.'
‘Because of you,' Boy AF Rex said, ‘I'm going to become weak by evening.'
‘You're making a joke,' I said to him. ‘I know you are.'
‘I'm not making a joke. I could get sick right now. And what about those AFs rear-store? There's already something not right with them. They're bound to get worse now. You were greedy, Klara.'
‘I don't believe you,' I said, but I was no longer so sure. I looked at Rosa, but her expression was still blank.
‘I'm feeling sick already,' Boy AF Rex said. And he sagged forward.
‘But you just said yourself. The Sun always has ways to reach us. You're making a joke, I know you are.'
I managed in the end to convince myself Boy AF Rex was teasing me. But what I sensed that day was that I had, without meaning to, made Rex bring up something uncomfortable, something most AFs in the store preferred not to talk about. Then not long afterwards that thing happened to Boy AF Rex, which made me think that even if he had been joking that day, a part of him had been serious too.
It was a bright morning, and Rex was no longer beside us because Manager had moved him to the front alcove. Manager always said that every position was carefully conceived, and that we were as likely to be chosen when standing at one as at another. Even so, we all knew the gaze of a customer entering the store would fall first on the front alcove, and Rex was naturally pleased to get his turn there. We watched him from mid-store, standing with his chin raised, the Sun's pattern all over him, and Rosa leaned over to me once to say, ‘Oh, he does look wonderful! He's bound to find a home soon!'
On Rex's third day in the front alcove, a girl came in with her mother. I wasn't so good then at telling ages, but I remember estimating thirteen and a half for the girl, and I think now that was
correct. The mother was an office worker, and from her shoes and suit we could tell she was high-ranking. The girl went straight to Rex and stood in front of him, while the mother came wandering our way, glanced at us, then went on towards the rear, where two AFs were sitting on the Glass Table, swinging their legs freely as Manager had told them to do. At one poi...
When I was lucky enough to see him like that, I'd lean my face forward to take in as much of his nourishment as I could, and if Rosa was with me, I'd tell her to do the same. After a minute or two, we'd have to return to our positions, and when we were new, we used to worry that because we often couldn't see the Sun from mid-store, we'd grow weaker and weaker. Boy AF Rex, who was alongside us then, told us there was nothing to worry about, that the Sun had ways of reaching us wherever we were. He pointed to the floorboards and said, ‘That's the Sun's pattern right there. If you're worried, you can just touch it and get strong again.'
There were no customers when he said this, and Manager was busy arranging something up on the Red Shelves, and I didn't want to disturb her by asking permission. So I gave Rosa a glance, and when she looked back blankly, I took two steps forward, crouched down and reached out both hands to the Sun's pattern on the floor. But as soon as my fingers touched it, the pattern faded, and though I tried all I could – I patted the spot where it had been, and when that didn't work, rubbed my hands over the floorboards – it wouldn't come back. When I stood up again Boy AF Rex said:
‘Klara, that was greedy. You girl AFs are always so greedy.'
Even though I was new then, it occurred to me straight away it might not have been my fault; that the Sun had withdrawn his pattern by chance just when I'd been touching it. But Boy AF Rex's face remained serious.
‘You took all the nourishment for yourself, Klara. Look, it's gone almost dark.'
Sure enough the light inside the store had become very gloomy. Even outside on the sidewalk, the Tow-Away Zone sign on the lamp post looked gray and faint.
‘I'm sorry,' I said to Rex, then turning to Rosa: ‘I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it all myself.'
‘Because of you,' Boy AF Rex said, ‘I'm going to become weak by evening.'
‘You're making a joke,' I said to him. ‘I know you are.'
‘I'm not making a joke. I could get sick right now. And what about those AFs rear-store? There's already something not right with them. They're bound to get worse now. You were greedy, Klara.'
‘I don't believe you,' I said, but I was no longer so sure. I looked at Rosa, but her expression was still blank.
‘I'm feeling sick already,' Boy AF Rex said. And he sagged forward.
‘But you just said yourself. The Sun always has ways to reach us. You're making a joke, I know you are.'
I managed in the end to convince myself Boy AF Rex was teasing me. But what I sensed that day was that I had, without meaning to, made Rex bring up something uncomfortable, something most AFs in the store preferred not to talk about. Then not long afterwards that thing happened to Boy AF Rex, which made me think that even if he had been joking that day, a part of him had been serious too.
It was a bright morning, and Rex was no longer beside us because Manager had moved him to the front alcove. Manager always said that every position was carefully conceived, and that we were as likely to be chosen when standing at one as at another. Even so, we all knew the gaze of a customer entering the store would fall first on the front alcove, and Rex was naturally pleased to get his turn there. We watched him from mid-store, standing with his chin raised, the Sun's pattern all over him, and Rosa leaned over to me once to say, ‘Oh, he does look wonderful! He's bound to find a home soon!'
On Rex's third day in the front alcove, a girl came in with her mother. I wasn't so good then at telling ages, but I remember estimating thirteen and a half for the girl, and I think now that was
correct. The mother was an office worker, and from her shoes and suit we could tell she was high-ranking. The girl went straight to Rex and stood in front of him, while the mother came wandering our way, glanced at us, then went on towards the rear, where two AFs were sitting on the Glass Table, swinging their legs freely as Manager had told them to do. At one poi...
