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Summary
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that 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?
Awards
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan but moved to England as a child and did not return to his home country for 30 years. In spite of this, his first two novels (A Pale View of the Hills and An Artist of the Floating World) are set in Japan—Ishiguro drew on the experiences of his Japanese-speaking parents but has claimed to be more inspired by British and European authors such as Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time). In 1986, Ishiguro met his future wife, Lorna MacDougall, while working at a homelessness charity, and the two have lived together in London ever since.
Though Ishiguro’s earliest novels were well reviewed, it’s arguable that his breakthrough was The Remains of The Day (1989), which follows a road trip by an English butler in the aftermath of World War II and was later adapted into a film. Ishiguro is known for writing in many different genres: perhaps his best-known novel today is the science fiction story Never Let Me Go (2005), but he has also written in the mystery genre (When We Were Orphans, 2000) and fantasy (The Buried Giant, 2015). In 2017, Kazuo Ishiguro received the Nobel Prize for literature. Klara and the Sun (2021) was Ishiguro’s first novel since winning the award.
Nobel Prize winner Ishiguro's eighth novel (after The Buried Giant)--a poignant, ultimately celebratory exploration of what it means to be human--is beautifully realized in narrator Sura Siu's virtuosic performance of Klara, a solar-powered AF (artificial friend) who has been purchased for Josie, a critically ill teenager. Through the narrow frame of Klara's earnest and childlike first-person point of view, a disturbing near-future dystopia is gradually revealed; technology has "lifted" children to exceptional intelligence, but has also "substituted" many adults out ofjobs, resulting in a starkly divided society that seems to be teetering on the brink of collapse. With hopes of finding a cure for Josie's mysterious illness, Klara tries to learn all she can from her experiences; in the process, she acquires not just knowledge but also humanity. Ishiguro's precise, deceptively simple prose, coupled with Klara's limited viewpoint, creates a stifling sense of foreboding that Siu wonderfully contrasts with her spirited voices for the novel's often-exasperating human characters. Siu's depictions of Klara, Josie, and Josie's teenage friends will likely resonate with many YA listeners (and their parents). VERDICT This powerful look at the varied and often negative consequences of modern technology underscores the fragility and preciousness of human beings--an all-too-acute awareness in a world coping with a global pandemic and widespread social upheaval.--Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.
Source Citation
Farrell, Beth. "Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and the Sun." Library Journal, vol. 146, no. 6, June 2021, pp. 79+. Gale Books and Authors, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A665169103/BNA?u=txshracd2500&sid=bookmark-BNA. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Ishiguro's eagerly anticipated first novel since receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, Klara and the Sun, was worth the wait. In a return to his sci-fi roots, Ishiguro introduces Klara, an AF (artificial friend) who covets the sun for the "nourishment" it gives her. The plot is told through Klara's eyes with her unfiltered view of the world and the humans who inhabit it. This novel reads like a companion piece to Ishiguro's 2005 Never Let Me Go, a novel that centers on cloning in a dystopian world. Klara is the child-like narrator of this story, and audiobook narrator Siu has precise pronunciation that, while not robotic, has an almost unnatural pace and tone that is fitting for the robot. Klara's narrative is also meant to be moderately paced, and Siu gives the reader ample time to absorb Klara's words, just as she is absorbing the unfamiliar world around her. This book will not only appeal to fans of dystopian fiction but to readers looking for that elusive something different. Ishiguro's title, classified as adult fiction, will also appeal to young adults for the coming-of-age element played out with AF Klara. All public libraries will absolutely want to add this title to their collection and anticipate its popularity with book clubs.
Source Citation
Zeigler, Shellie. "Klara and the Sun." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2021, p. 61. Gale Books and Authors, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A662574769/BNA?u=txshracd2500&sid=bookmark-BNA. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Summary
From Trump’s proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of white supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as “lively and vital,” editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack.
These writers, and the many others in this urgent collection, share powerful personal stories of living between cultures and languages while struggling to figure out who they are and where they belong.
Nikesh Shukla FRSL is a British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays The Good Immigrant, which features contributions from Riz Ahmed, Musa Okwonga, Bim Adewunmi, and Reni Eddo-Lodge, among others. With Chimène Suleyman, he co-edited the 2019 follow-up collection called The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect On America.
Chimene or Chimène Suleyman is a writer from London of Turkish Cypriot descent, who has written on the politics of race and immigration in media including The Guardian, The Independent, the BBC and NPR, and co-edited The Good Immigrant USA in 2019.
"Immigrants offer affecting personal essays about adapting to daily life in the United States while also retaining their identities forged by foreign cultures.
In 2015, editors Shukla (The One Who Wrote Destiny, 2018, etc.) and Suleyman (Outside Looking On, 2014) published a similar book in the U.K. Suleyman has since relocated to New York City and taken charge of this current collection, the title of which plays on the toxic assumption that all immigrants should be perceived as “bad” until they demonstrate otherwise. The editors do not explain how they decided on the order of the essays, but many readers will agree that the first, Porochista Khakpour’s “How to Write Iranian-America, or the Last Essay,” qualifies as both the most inventively written and most memorable. Besides Iran, the other nations in the anthology are spread across the world, from Africa to Asia to Europe to Latin America. The contributors also explore topics around the generalized immigration experiences of both Muslims and Jews. Because some of the essays are ripped from the headlines, Donald Trump’s xenophobia and immigration-related presidential policies figure in, as well. In fact, the fear spawned by the hatred of Trump and the Republican Party is palpable throughout. In that context, “Return to Macondo,” by Puerto Rican writer Susanne Ramírez de Arellano, offers the especially poignant—and angry—perspective of a marginalized woman who “never bought the American Dream. It was a visceral reaction. This dream always had the rank smell of bullshit to me. I didn’t believe it, no matter what new toothpaste or amazing trip to the moon they were selling.” The author biographies at the back of the book will help readers find talented immigrant authors previously unknown to them; some of the more well-known contributors include Khakpour, Alexander Chee, Daniel José Elder, Teju Cole, and Nicole Dennis-Benn.
As in nearly all collections, the quality varies, but there are no weak links in this well-curated book."
Source Citation
"The Good Immigrant: 27 Writers Reflect on America." Kirkus Reviews, 19 Nov. 2018, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nikesh-shukla/the-good-immigrant/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
"In this revealing follow-up to the 2015 British edition, Shukla (Meatspace) and Suleyman (Outside Looking On) invite 26 artists and scholars, who are immigrants or have ties to multiple countries, to reflect on race, ethnicity, nationality, belonging, and the legacy of colonization, mostly in the context of post-2016 U.S. Written after, and in response to, U.S. President Trump’s Muslim travel bans and references to “shithole countries,” these essays string similar notes—history, memory, pride, and (non)belonging—into many different melodies. Journalist Porochista Khakpour wonders at how she has come to write about nothing but “Iranian-America.” Artists Adrián and Sebastián Villar Rojas lay out Argentina’s struggle between its indigenous roots and its desire to be Western. Teju Cole and Walé Oyéjidé offer contrasting interpretations of depictions of Africa in the blockbuster film Black Panther. French-British film director Yann Demange gives an extended answer to the question, “Where are you from?” and concludes that he will keep giving the short answer, because “the alternative answer can take for-fucking-ever, innit.” The strength of this collection is in its diversity—of gender, sexuality, privilege, experience, and writing style. A gift for anyone who understands or wants to learn about the breadth of experience among immigrants to the U.S., this collection showcases the joy, empathy, and fierceness needed to adopt the country as one’s own."
Source Citation
"The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America." Publishers Weekly, 3 Jan. 2019, www.publishersweekly.com/9780316524285. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Summary
The prompt seemed simple: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.
The answers, though, have been challenging and complicated. In the twelve years since award-winning journalist Michele Norris first posed that question, over half a million people have submitted their stories to The Race Card Project inbox. The stories are shocking in their depth and candor, spanning the full spectrum of race, ethnicity, identity, and class. Even at just six words, the micro-essays can pack quite a punch, revealing, fear, pain, triumph, and sometimes humor. Responses such as: You’re Pretty for a Black girl. White privilege, enjoy it, earned it. Lady, I don’t want your purse. My ancestors massacred Indians near here. Urban living has made me racist. I’m only Asian when it’s convenient.
Many go even further than just six words, submitting backstories, photos, and heirlooms: a collection much like a scrapbook of American candor you rarely get to see. Our Hidden Conversations is a unique compilation of stories, richly reported essays, and photographs providing a window into America during a tumultuous era. This powerful book offers an honest, if sometimes uncomfortable, conversation about race and identity, permitting us to eavesdrop on deep-seated thoughts, private discussions, and long submerged memories.
The breadth of this work came as a surprise to Norris. For most of the twelve years she has collected these stories, many were submitted by white respondents. This unexpected panorama provides a rare 360-degree view of how Americans see themselves and one another.
Our Hidden Conversations reminds us that even during times of great division, honesty, grace, and a willing ear can provide a bridge toward empathy and maybe even understanding.
Awards
Norris and collaborators won a 2014 Peabody Award for the Race Card Project.
Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, earning several honors over a long career, including Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards. She is a columnist for The Washington Post Opinion Section, the host of the Audible Original Podcast, Your Mama’s Kitchen, and from and from 2002 to 2012 she was a cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered. Norris is also the founding director of The Race Card Project, a Peabody Award–winning narrative archive where people around the world share their reflections on identity—in just six words. Her first book, The Grace of Silence, was named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Kansas City Star. Before joining NPR, Norris spent almost ten years as a reporter for ABC News covering politics, policy, and the dynamics of social change. Early in her career, she also worked as a staff writer for The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.
NPR and Washington Post journalist Norris hoped that the book tour for her memoir, The Grace of Silence (2011), which shared the stories about racism that her family had held close until the election of President Obama, could provoke candid conversations about race. In order to give her audience a starting point, she created the Race Card Project: postcards with the prompt "Race. Your Thoughts. 6 words. Please send." Over the next 14 years, she received thousands of cards in the mail and online. Strangers sent their six words, expanding on why they chose them and how their lives had shaped them. In Our Hidden Conversations, Norris explores themes that emerged from the thought-provoking, insightful, and often painful experiences people shared. Each chapter tells stories from one postcard, interspersed with six-word responses from others. Norris creates a picture of a complicated moment in American history, in which what it means to be American is a fraught question, and at a time when demographic shifts, political extremism, and violence have increased awareness of ongoing racism in the U.S. This is an eye-opening read and an affecting examination of how race affects our lives.--Laura Chanoux
YA: YAs interested in contextualizing their own experiences and learning more deeply about others will appreciate this wide-angle look at others' thoughts on race. LC.
Source Citation
Chanoux, Laura. "Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think about Race and Identity." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 7-8, 1 Dec. 2023, p. 90. Gale Books and Authors, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A777512416/BNA?u=txshracd2500&sid=bookmark-BNA. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Author and narrator Michele Norris delivers an approachable audio performance about Americans' candid, sometimes shocking responses to the prompt: "Race. Your Story. Six Words. Please Send." This audiobook is part of Norris' project, The Race Card, and the collection gives a unique voice to each of hundreds of responses, some delivered by the familiar voices of professional narrators emotionally connecting to stories full of hope and heartbreak. Other responses are delivered by the people that originally submitted them, which adds candor and authenticity as the readers frequently delve into the personal stories that explain how race affected their lives. Despite the sometimes poor recording and/or audio quality, the respondents' honesty and sincerity are elevated. Norris, with her background as an NPR reporter, has a particularly enjoyable voice that takes a conversational approach to her leisurely paced narration, which allows listeners space to process sometimes difficult subject matter. This audiobook presents a spectrum of ideas around identity: hopeful, humorous, painful, sometimes ignorant. An accompanying PDF can be downloaded along with the audio and features photos of postcard submitters next to their six-word stories. In a thoughtful adaptation for listeners, Norris comments in the audiobook when it is especially helpful to reference those photos.--Alex Richey
Source Citation
Richey, Alex. "Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2024, p. 86. Gale Books and Authors, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788125105/BNA?u=txshracd2500&sid=bookmark-BNA. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.