There is something unnameable about the way Ishiguro’s books make me feel. I cannot explain it in words. They feel like a breath of fresh air on a crisp autumn day. Seeing an old friend after a long period of separation. That moment of complete silence in the early hours of the morning.The writing was the author’s usual, simplistic style that never fails to captivate me. Full of subtle hints that leaves the reader desperate to figure out what our characters are going through. Pages rich with nua...

Do you hear the eerie sound of trumpets informs us an unpopular review is on its way! I am not sure I read the same book everybody did. All those critics have written marvelous things about this one which made truly excited to dive into! We’re talking Nobel prize winner author! This is brand new book of the author of “Remains of the day” and “ Never Let me go”! What could possibly go wrong? But too many things absolutely went so wrong! I felt like I stuck in mud and sunk deeper at each page! Eve...

I tore through the ARC in less than 24 hours, and now I'm just sitting here with tears in my eyes, completely and utterly satisfied. I love Klara, the insightful and noble Artificial Friend, and I wish she were real so that I could hug her and tell her how much she means to me. This book is all my favorite things rolled into one--sci-fi, mythology, suspense and mystery, and coming of age (yes, of a robot). It's a beautiful and powerful exploration of important questions about humanity: what make...

I was super into this book in the first half and could have easily given it 4 stars. It was charming to see the world through the eyes of an innocent and optimistic AI, and the audiobook narration added to the whimsy. I was excited to see all the potential developments unfold among the protagonist and the family she lives with. Unfortunately, the story didn’t go anywhere from there. There weren’t any groundbreaking observations of human nature, nor enough emotional stakes to make the book specia...

Now longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021! - https://thebookerprizes.com/fiction/2021Human callousness and the cruelty of forgetting and changing. All captured in a near future America with some very faint glimmers of hope intertwined“Sometimes,’ she said, ‘at special moments like that, people feel a pain alongside their happiness. I’m glad you watch everything so carefully, Klara.”One does not read Kazuo Ishiguro his works for literary fireworks on a sentence level. This is especially true for K...

If NEVER LET ME GO is your favorite Ishiguro, he is serving up something very similar here. Ishiguro can hop between genres, but this is surprisingly close to that familiar territory, though with enough differences to be its own unique thing.What you may recognize: the near-future setting that is mostly similar to the present but gradually we learn of some astonishing differences; the first-person narrator that is a kind of outsider who doesn't fully understand the world they live in; themes of

I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about an “artificial friend” to a sick young girl is no exception. Although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots aren’t a force for evil. Instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book made me think about what life with super intelligent robots might look like—and whether we’ll treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or as something more.

This seems to be quite a polarizing book, with everyone either loving it or hating it. But Klara and the Sun didn't elicit such strong emotions in me. It didn't wow me in any way, but I didn't hate it either. I fell squarely in the meh-meh middle.We start off with Klara at the store, hoping to be chosen as the Artificial Friend for a family. Since she's a robot and the story is told from her perspective, her narrative comes across as a bit robotic and detached. But it fits the tone of the story,...

Ishiguro has an unparalleled ability to craft dystopian societies which are simultaneously shocking and disorientating, yet oddly familiar -- they are believable because they take present values or ideas and stretch them to the extreme. He also has an unmatched ability to construct scenes in which misunderstandings cause conflict, so awkward and frustrating that the reader wishes they could intervene.Klara and the Sun imagines what the future of artificial intelligence and genetic-engineering co...

“Klara and the Sun” is the first novel Ishiguro has published since he won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature which – of course - means that this is one of the publishing events of the year, but given this author's output producing a new novel roughly every five years means it's also coming right on time. I was entranced by his most recent novel “The Buried Giant” which reads like the most psychologically-compelling fable or fantasy tale. Yet, even though I have a high regard for his work, I was...

Longlisted for the 2021 Booker PrizeKlara is hyper-observant, always watching those around her closely. Noticing if, say, a flicker of sadness passes across someone’s features. Klara is also an Artificial Friend, a lifelike android destined to become a companion for a human child. Is it empathy, the way she notices, observes, adjusts her behaviour accordingly? Or something else? Ishiguro excels at narrators who are detached, almost affectless, without being cold. Of this type, Klara is both exem...

Sometimes, you have to put your fate in the hands of the universe.I am not a person who believes in manifestation, or fate, or signs. I am not spiritual or mystical or otherwise kinda kooky. I do not know anything about astrology - I can barely remember my main one, and the words "moon" and "rising" make me break out in hives.But I do have one prevailing belief system in this life, and that is taking advantage of every book sale, even if you do not know the books-for-sale in question.When I happ...

Audiobook.... read by Sura Siu “Klara and the Sun” is sooooo GOOD...Absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!There’s already a myriad of reviews describing the plot, and/or analyzing Kazuo Ishiguro, or comparisons to Ishiguro’s other novels, and ‘more’ analyzing of the characters, the narrative, and book cover....Dozens of marvelous reviews...So....I’m just going add that “Klara and the Sun”, is one of my 2021 favorites!!! ....loved, loved, loved every second of it!!!!The audiobook was as wonderful as can be! I...

Meh. To be entirely fair though, when it comes to Ishiguro I am like an addict forever chasing that first high. Never Let Me Go was the first novel of his that I read and nothing measured up ever since.On a less subjective note, this book is great. Ishiguro looks at humanity from a slightly different angle than in Never Let Me Go, but seeks the answer to the same question: What makes us human?Are we merely sophisticated machines held together by a bundle of data or is there something inside us t...

One day a couple years ago I was sitting at my desk at the library when a colleague came in and excitedly told me there were two men in a rowboat coming down the creek.It's a slender and shallow creek and you wouldn't expect to see a rowboat coming down it, so I could understand her delight. She went to take some photos while I went about my work, declining to check it out myself.That evening at home I told my partner about it, how Christy had seen two men in a rowboat in the creek behind the li...