Published in 2021, Kazuo Ishiguro ’s eighth novel,

, is the first work the author published after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. As Ishiguro notes, the duties his winning this most prestigious prize entailed in terms of lectures and appearances interrupted work on this novel (Lederman). Ishiguro delivered the final draft of

at the end of 2019; thus, the dystopian society of the novel is not the effect of the pandemic but represents concerns the author had already expressed in his Nobel lecture: “in the wealthy democracies of the West, we are fracturing into rival camps … stunning breakthroughs in science and technology … may create savage meritocracies that resemble apartheid”.

A speculative narrative set in a society of

6381 words

Citation: Logotheti, Anastasia. "Klara and the Sun". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 October 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41007, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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