Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro introduces Klara, an Artificial Friend known for her outstanding powers of observation. From her position in a shop, she studies the people who come in to browse, as well as those moving along the street outside, watching their behaviour with careful attention.

Klara remains hopeful that a customer will choose her, yet she is also cautioned about placing too much faith in human promises when the prospect arises that her life could change for ever. In his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ishiguro uses Klara’s perspective to consider a rapidly changing modern world and to explore a central question: what does it mean to love?

Key details

• Novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Narrated through the perspective of Klara, an Artificial Friend
• Set partly in a store, observing customers and passers-by
• Described as the author’s first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature

Synopsis

Klara, an Artificial Friend with exceptional observational qualities, watches the behaviour of people who browse in the shop and those outside on the street. She hopes to be selected by a customer, but as the possibility of a permanent change in her circumstances appears, she is warned not to invest too much in what humans promise. The novel views a rapidly changing modern world through Klara’s eyes while asking what it means to love.

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