Klara And The Sun

 Nobel-prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguri wrote Klara And The Sun. This dystopian novel is about an AF (artificial friend/robot) who helps Josie, a teenager with a potentially deadly illness related to air pollution. Josie is 14 and although she is ill, she is grateful for the company of Klara, her artificial friend. Klara is emotionally intelligent but her knowledge of the real world is very limited. Josie has a friend named Rick. At birth Josie and her older sister were "lifted" or genetically improved. This improvement comes with the risk of pollution related illness. Josie's older sister died from the illness and all signs point that Josie will die too. To hear the entire story from the thoughts of an artificial friend, especially such an endearing artifical friend as Klara, is an odd experience. Ishiguri is a talented author and I really liked his other novel, Never Let Me Go. When Klara describes the tense interactions between Klara's mother and father, his skill as an author really shines.