“Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.”

Release Date: October 6th, 2020

Genre(s): Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Dystopian/Speculative 

Publisher: Knopf

Pages: 304

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Synopsis

Klara and the Sun is a story that follows Klara, an Artificial Friend. She spends her days in the store watching those who browse, as well as observing those who pass on the streets outside. She hopes that someday, someone will choose her.

Review

Klara and the Sun was my first novel by Ishiguro, and after reading I definitely want to try his other works. This was a wonderfully-written novel that combines literary fiction with science fiction and speculative themes. I was interested in this book because of the presence of AI, and I was happy to see this book go so far beyond the synopsis.

I really enjoyed seeing the world from Klara’s perspective. Starting with her life in the shop, you can see how she perceives the world around her, as well as how quickly she learns all about it. Additionally, I liked seeing how artificial beings processed emotion in this book and the exploration of that between the characters. 

While the shop itself is interesting, the world beyond that really opens up the story. There’s two things going on at this point; the exploration of a society where children are being raised differently, and the struggles that Josie and her family face with her condition. The unfolding of the latter takes place over the course of the book and the characters’ actions throughout this make this part of the story very developed, engaging, and emotional. 

However, I do wish the society itself and the speculative/dystopian nature of the world were explored more in Klara and the Sun. I found that what the parents were attempting to do with the children had a lot of modern parallels and wanted to see more of what led them to this and the benefits they saw. I feel like we saw this briefly with the gathering but I really wanted to see this explored even more. I can absolutely see why this was done as it we were seeing the world through Klara’s perspective. However, I’m sure that there was still opportunity for this throughout the book. I think this is mostly my preference, as I like those details in books. 

Klara and the Sun was a beautifully-written novel with memorable characters. I’m looking forward to trying out Ishiguro’s other works, likely starting with Never Let Me Go.

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