From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, carefully watches the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
In Klara and the Sun, his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly-changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
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When we were new, Rosa and I were mid-store, on the magazine table side, and could see through more than half the window. PART ONE
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(@FaberBooks, 2 March 2021, ebook, 248 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I've only read a couple of the author's books but have generally been impressed. His other books are on my TBR list. I had to buy a copy of Klara and the Sun when I saw it promoted on Amazon because it sounded so good. The praise heaped on this novel is spot-on, it's an incredible book. I've never read a book where the central character is an AI, at least not one where the are the first person narrator. I found myself really warming to Klara as she observes the world in a slightly off-kilter way. There is a lot of sadness in the book as well as Klara becomes the AF for a very sick teenager which echoes the movie Artificial Intelligence and starts to question her role in Josie's life and the world at large a lot more. The ending is full of hope but very sad as well. I cried.
