Ishiguro's quiet experiment lacks usual spark

ON MY BOOKSHELF

- LIESL VAN DER SCHYFF

KAZUO Ishiguro, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, built his reputation on restraint.

The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go drew power from what they left unsaid. Klara and the Sun tries for that same quiet spell but never reaches the same depth.

The novel is told through the eyes of Klara, an Artificial Friend, an advanced robot built to keep children company. From her shop window she studies the street, cataloguing gestures and shadows, until a teenager named Josie chooses her. Josie is ill, her world shaped by a near-future where children can be “lifted,” or genetically enhanced, for academic success. Klara is meant to observe and care, and she does, with almost devotional patience.