Klara and the Sun
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4.2 • 192 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Longlisted for the Booker Prize • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times • The Globe and Mail • The Guardian • Esquire • Vogue • TIME • The Washington Post • The Times (UK) • Vulture • The Economist • NPR • Bookriot • and more • On President Barack Obama's Summer 2021 Reading List • The magnificent new novel from Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro—author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day.
“The Sun always has ways to reach us.”
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully 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 forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
In Klara and the Sun, 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?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nobel laureate Ishiguro takes readers to a vaguely futuristic, technologically advanced setting reminiscent of his Never Let Me Go for a surprising parable about love, humanity, and science. Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanlike robot designed to be a child's companion. She spends her days watching humans from her perch in the AF store, fascinated by their emotions and hungry to learn enough to help her future owner. Klara, who is solar-powered, reveres the sun for the "nourishment" and upholds "him" as a godlike figure. Klara is eventually bought by teenager Josie and continues to learn about humans through her interactions with Josie's family and childhood friend. When Josie becomes seriously ill, Klara pleads with the sun to make her well again and confronts the boundary between service and sacrifice. While the climax lends a touch of fantasy, Klara's relationship with the sun, which is hidden at times by smog, touches on the consequences of environmental destruction. As with Ishiguro's other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara's quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity ("There was something very special, but it wasn't inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her," Klara says). This dazzling genre-bending work is a delight.
Customer Reviews
AI feelings
Written from a seeming AI perspective,but touching and beautiful in challenging us to our own conscience and the meaning of our own bonds and memories in this short life. Beautiful read!
AI, Heart and Tomorrow
Kazuo Ishiguro's "Klara and the Sun" is a mesmerizing exploration of love, consciousness, and the essence of being, all through the perspective of Klara, an artificial intelligence. In a time of rapidly advancement in quantum computers, AGI, and robotics, this novel poignantly captures this intersection. Ishiguro's subtle yet profound narrative offers a deeply relevant reflection on the evolving relationship between humans and AI, making it a must-read in our technologically transformative times.
Klara and The Sun
Another major metaphysical contribution into how AI looks at us and how we look at — and use — AI. Humans don’t come off very well.