86 pages 2 hours read

Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Introduction

Klara and the Sun

  • Genre: Fiction; dystopian/science fiction
  • Originally Published: 2021
  • Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
  • Structure/Length: 6 parts; approx. 307 pages; approx. 10 hours, 16 minutes on audio
  • Protagonist and Central Conflict: Klara, an android, lives in the US in the near future. She serves as an Artificial Friend to Josie, a girl whose intelligence has been “lifted,” as is common for children in her society, but whose health is failing as a result of the procedure.
  • Potential Sensitivity Issues: Serious illness of a child; prejudice based on socio-economic status

Kazuo Ishiguro, Author

  • Bio: Born in 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan; raised in Britain after age 5; backpacked across parts of the US and Canada before beginning a program of literature and philosophy at the University of Kent at Canterbury; gradually began writing fiction while becoming interested in social and political issues; early novels well received, then became an international best-selling author with The Remains of the Day; musician, screenplay writer, short fiction writer, and novelist; won the Nobel Prize for Literature (2017)
  • Other Works: The Remains of the Day (1989); Never Let Me Go (2005); The Buried Giant (2015)
  • Awards: The Booker Prize (longlisted; 2021); named a best book of the year by the New York Times, NPR, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and others