Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Klara is an AF (artificial friend) who waits in a window to be chosen by a child to be their companion. Then one day a young girl stops by to chat with Klara, and changes everything for both of them.

I felt about the same of this one as I did about Never Let me Go, another novel of Ishiguro's...meh. The premises are so strong, but the deliveries are so weak! I loved the concept of an AF with human-esque emotions, and the twisted entanglement she finds herself in with her new family. But holy cow, it dragged, and it drove me BONKERS that Klara could speak completely coherently until it came to pronouns.

Klara, talking to Rick: "I think that Rick should have a snack." The word is YOU Klara! YOU!

I demand and explanation for that.

I can't say that it's not worth the read, but I don't know that I would knock anyone over to get my hands on it either.

Another strong book by Ishiguro. Klara was a very intriguing character and I never bored of hearing from her point of view. There were constant surprises in the way that she perceived the world around her. She's both exceptional for an AI but also limited in certain ways. I was always eager to open the book up and continue the story. I highly recommend this title to anyone who enjoyed Never Let Me Go as well.

If you've read Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go," then "Klara and the Sun" will feel very familiar. The themes are so similar it's surprising the author could get away with it. Klara is an AF (Artificial Friend), waiting in a store to be chosen by a young child as their life companion. Klara's dull existence changes when chosen by Josie, a gregarious child suffering from a mysterious health condition. They live together in the country side, and navigate the social dynamics between children who are "elevated" (and have the means to do so) and those who aren't. [Potential spoiler] It isn't until the end of the novel that "elevation" is fully defined: a biological process through which a child's IQ and abilities are genetically enhanced. Josie's good friend Rick is "unelevated" placing him at the bottom of the social hierarchy. As Josie's illness progresses, her erratic and downright disturbing mother devises a plan to ensure her daughter's spirit will live on in case of her passing. Simultaneously, Klara devises a bizarre plan to ensure Josie's body doesn't cave.

In "Klara and the Sun," Ishiguro explores the themes of companionship and loneliness in the technological age. Klara is incredibly insightful, supportive, and observant. Yet, she is perpetually defined by her artificiality and never fully integrated among humans. Ironically she is the most generous and caring character in the story. A nice story, don't get me wrong, but one I have read many times before. Ishiguro's clear prose is as compelling as ever but doesn't carry this novel far enough to make up for its predictability.

“There was something very special, but it wasn't inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her.”

This is one of my most anticipated books of 2021, but duh, it didn't work for me. I was so curious to see what Ishiguro had plotted for us this time, though I have never read any of his work I was excited. I am in awe of how he can create a dystopian atmosphere in his stories, but this one, huh-uh failed to give me the enjoyment.
Well, Klara and the Sun presents readers with a peaceful mode of reading. Klara is an AF and she's oblivious to the reality of the world. She is hyper observed, always watching those around her so closely. Her sensitivity to other people's feelings is intensified to a degree that makes her both deeply sympathetic and a little creepy. This book is written through Klara's POV and there are no many dialogues here, so chances are high that you might get bored reading the plain text. (It was for me)
It took 2+ weeks for me to complete this book, without reading any other books along. That was my first disappointment. I planned to DNF this book, but it's hard and I loved Klara's personality so I had to keep going. Sometimes she made me wonder how smart and well-behaved she is. And at the other moment, she had me shaking my head at the thought of how dumb blind she is about the real world. And I was dumb enough to compare the dystopian world to the real world. My bad. But I must confess that the huge volume of dialogues in this book was really repelling for me and made the story less enjoyable. This was such a slow burn for me and it really deserves all the Sun (stars) but I can't give it. If you enjoy reading about Robots and AI then you will enjoy this one.
This book did me dirty or I did dirty to this book by reading it. I am sorry that I didn't enjoy it as much as others did.

I was surprised how much I found myself feeling for Klara and wanting to know more about her and the world she inhabits somewhere in the "near" future. I know that Ishiguro isn't for everyone, but I would recommend giving this one a try. I've been recommending this to my patrons to great success.

"Klara and the Sun" is fantastic. You cannot go wrong with anything written by Kazuo Ishiguro. Highly recommended.

Wow! Most readers love this book, but unfortunately I do not. I found it a bit dull. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun is an unusual tale told from the point of view of a AI unit. Klara has been chosen to be a friend to a young girl named Josie, who is chronically ill from a procedure known only as “lifting.” While Klara is programmed only to make conversation, care for her friend, and do simple tasks, she is exceptionally perceptive for an AF (artificial friend).

Whether it’s from Klara’s lack of outside knowledge or a built-in lack of curiosity, we never know too much about the world the characters inhabit, other than it is a near-future where most parents choose to genetically enhance their children (“lift”). Those who don’t are outcasts, seen as not caring about their children’s future. But the procedure is risky, and not all kids survive the “lifting” process. Josie’s sister did not survive it, but their mother was still intent on Josie receiving the enhancement, believing it would be worth it.

It’s unclear what sort of enhancement that “lifting” provides, as Josie does not seem to be particularly intelligent or talented, at least as seen by Klara, who only gives observable facts. She does remark at one point that one of the “lifted” children that visits Josie has unusually long arms. Are children born with deformities or deficiencies that require genetic surgery to fix? Or does it gift them with abilities that present later, outside of Klara’s view, that improves their chances of survival in a world overcome by pollution?

Having only vague knowledge of the world we’ve been dropped into is a bit irritating but it adds to the sense of melancholy at the ending, a feeling that to me is a hallmark of Ishiguro’s writing. Just a bit more world-building would maybe make this story more palatable to a larger audience, but readers familiar with his work will recognize and enjoy the tone and appreciate the slow burn of realization that occurs after finishing the book.

Klara and the Sun is SO MUCH my kind of book. I felt like I was holding my breath the whole time I was reading. At first I thought it was going in one direction and then it didn't and then all that time I was just falling in love with Klara's character. I so wanted a different life for her even though she was technically not living at all. This is my first Ishiguro book and now I need to get caught up on everything he has written. I think everyone should read this and then have to discuss it with me :D

This is a provocative book. The main character, Klara, is an Artificial Friend -- they avoid the term robot but that's the idea although evidently with feet and human features. The book is set sometime in the future in an unspecified place.

Klara is an absolutely endearing character. It is difficult to think of her as a non sensate being because she often uses her logical abilities to draw emotional conclusions about people and their personalities. There's no joy in this book -- the kids experience bullying, there are ominous political threats of a fascist nature, the interactions between men and women are tense and fraught, and the parent-child relationships are flawed.

Klara's human is Josie -- a teen with an unspecified serious and possibly terminal illness. Her younger sister already died. In this society, the "fortunate" kids undergo genetic modifications to further their intellectual growth and educational opportunity. But it's possible this affects their physical health as well. AFs are common for kids, who seemingly are socially isolated. The scene where kids get together to hang out shows the cost of no friendly interactions -- the kids are mean and snarky and exhibit no empathy.

Klara is extremely conscientious. She tries to help heal Josie the best way she knows how -- by arranging her to be exposed to the same strong sunlight that charges Klara's solar powered system. And Josie miraculously and inexplicably recovers.

It's a thought provoking book which raises many questions about the limits and possibilities of artificial intelligence. But it's not a happy book. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, mainly based on all the great advance reviews and hype I've been reading, but I just didn't enjoy it. The premise of a future where children would need Artificial Friends is an interesting one, especially in light of the past year of remote learning and isolation of our children, but the book waited too long to explain certain concepts, such as uplifting, and it became confusing and unrelatable. It was difficult to feel a connection to Klara and the book might have been more engaging with Josie as the narrator.

I had forgotten how much I love Ishiguro's writing. This book is definitely for fans of Never Let Me Go--another meditation on where are society could go with science and an obsession with perfection. I truly think this is a must read.

I cannot stop thinking about Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Told from the viewpoint of an AF (artificial friend) I was initially a bit skeptical. How would I connect with the main character? Where was this story going? Quickly I realized that I had nothing to worry about. Ishiguro, in his trademark storytelling, was going to deliver a story that I ultimately wouldn't stop thinking about weeks after finishing. This is a story that connects the dots between what makes us human, what role love has in our humanity and what makes a life worth living. All of these themes touched upon throughout the story by a main character that is both insightful and full of her own questions. I love that Ishiguro doesn't tell us everything, most of the world we are visiting these characters in is left out. But it works. Its a small piece of a larger picture, the characters in Klara's world, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Truly a masterful story and Klara is a character of unforgettable stature.

I loved Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go and was looking forward to the new book. It just did not strike a chord with me. I never understood was "lifted" meant, so that may be why I did not connect to story. Did Josie's illness have to do with being lifted? Why did her mother act as if Josie could control her illness? Why was being lifted so bad that the boy's mother did not chose it for him? There just were too many unanswered questions.

I found myself skimming many pages, because the story moved so slowly. It read more like young adult literature to me. I finished it, but I would not recommend this to anyone else.

Like in his previous novel "Never Let Me Go," Kashuo Iziguro uses the naive main character to observe the world around them as a way to reveal the motives and desperation of humanity. Mothers struggling to provide the best for their children, the unending and haunting grief of losing a child are all seen but not spoken as Karla tries to put together why people do what they do.

What is love?

It’s a question without an answer to which we nevertheless try to respond. Artists have been seeking that answer since there has been art. And while we’ll never have a definitive answer – it’s not that kind of question – a lot of brilliant people have come up with a lot of brilliant responses.

Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro has a few of those responses in his bibliography. His latest is “Klara and the Sun,” and it too is a response to that existential question, though that’s far from the only building block of the human condition the book explores. It’s a book that deftly embraces speculative elements in service to the telling of its very human story, all reflected through the eyes of someone who may or may not actually be … someone.

Klara is an Artificial Friend, living in a store and waiting for the opportunity to go home with someone and be their loyal companion. She and the other AFs spend their days patiently awaiting the day when they are the one chosen to go home with a child. But Klara’s … different from the rest.

She sees things.

Unlike her fellow AFs, Klara is constantly intellectually engaging with what she sees. She pays attention to what is going on around her, taking advantage when she is rotated into the display window and observing the street. That’s where she is when she first locks eyes with Josie, the little girl who will ultimately take her into her life.

Klara joins Josie and her mother in the country, far removed from the troubled times of the city. Josie’s mother was a person of great status, though her father – absent and little spoken of – was among those who had been automated out of employment and relegated to second-class citizen status.

As it turns out, Josie is quite ill, suffering from an unnamed ailment that weakens her and is almost assuredly going to lead to her untimely end. Klara has been brought in to provide love and companionship to Josie in her difficult times. Only it’s a bit more complicated than that.

The social strata of the younger generations involves one sharp delineation – that between Lifted and Unlifted (the book takes its time getting to the specific explanation – such as it is – and so I will leave it for you to discover for yourselves). Suffice it to say, Josie sits on one side of the divide – the more socially desirable one – and her lifelong friend and neighbor Rick sits on the other, with all the complications that such a separation entails.

But as time passes, Klara finds herself at the center of not one, but two efforts to save Josie from her fate. One driven by Josie’s formidable-yet-fragile mother … and one driven by Klara herself, an idea born of her own unique combination of keen observation and naïve innocence. Klara doesn’t care which one works, no matter the consequences for her – all she wishes is for her friend to get better.

“Klara and the Sun” is a perfect example of literary fiction adapting speculative tropes in service to larger ideas. The truth is that speculative fiction has always been better at allowing room for big concepts, so it’s no surprise that someone like Ishiguro – who is obviously fascinated by those big concepts – to explore that space.

This is a story about connection and what that means, about the difference between the illusion of love and actual love and that increasingly vanishingly small point where one becomes the other. Is it possible for outside programming to become inner truth? Do the trappings of loyalty and affection actually equal those things?

All of this set in a near-future and seen through the lens of a being that is artificial, yet whose connections feel real. Klara’s love for Josie and willingness to sacrifice whatever it takes for her – is that any less real for having been initiated by a program? Klara’s outlook, her understanding of the world and the way it works.

This is the world that Ishiguro has built for the reader though his stunning prose. No matter what the setting being constructed, Ishiguro assembles it with care and craft, placing brick upon perfectly-matched brick until a fully-realized and vivid world rises forth. It’s all quite beautifully imagined. Plus, in Klara, he gives us a narrator that is both eminently reliable in terms of raw observation and utterly unreliable in terms of fully grokking what has been observed. All of this wrapped in an insightful and emotionally engaging narrative. It’s quite a feat.

It’s a remarkable glimpse at the inner life of a being crafted solely to offer unconditional love, to remain loyal and amiable no matter what, when that being finds a way to grow. It’s almost a bildungsroman by way of artificial intelligence; we watch Klara change in small but undeniable ways, all in service to better love.

“Klara and the Sun” is a masterful piece of fiction, a book that is equal parts thought-provoking and page-turning – a rare achievement indeed. Big questions rarely have set answers, but for writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, those questions are the ones that truly matter.

Heartfelt and thought provoking, Klara and the Sun is a quietly reflective exploration of what makes us human. Set in the near future, the story is told from the perspective of Klara an AF (artificial friend) who is purchased as a companion to a gravely Ill girl. But Klara is also part of a greater plan.
Klara is highly observant and the reader learns through her observations of life in this dystopia. The description of this society is ambiguous yet eerie, effectively combining sci fi and mystery elements. Klara’s role as an artificial friend provided an introspective exploration of love, friendship,ethics, memory and altruism and the role they play in humanity. This is a striking story that thoughtfully explores the intersection where technology ends and humanity begins.

This is an excellent book and one I will recommend to anyone. What does it mean to be human? Ishiguro tackles this question head on and doesn't disappoint. Klara and the Sun is right up there with the best of his novels.

This book really is as wonderful as people say it is. SUCH a fantastic new book from Ishiguro, and I think it will be well beloved.

KLARA AND THE SUN by award winning author Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go) is a novel to savor. Klara is an AF, artificial friend, with a unique perspective on humans in the not too distant future. Readers first encounter Klara at her store where even The Manager appreciates that she has special empathetic and compassionate qualities. Eventually purchased by Josie and The Mother, Klara relates Josie's bouts with sickness, her efforts to become independent, and struggles with her parents. Throughout the novel, there is a tension between hope and an overriding sense of melancholy and foreboding. Klara has keen observation skills, but is also naive (perhaps even superstitious, if an artificial being exhibits that trait) in some of her beliefs. The contrast between sacrifice and selfishness from a computerized entity that of and human friends and family members is striking.

Extremely well-written, KLARA AND THE SUN received starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly ("dazzling genre-bending work"). Booklist recommends this title for teens, saying "Sophisticated YAs will appreciate Josie’s struggles with loneliness, independence, maturation, and eventual indifference."