This is where I want to jump to some of the science aspects of Ishiguro’s novel with the help of one of my latest reads – The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson. In a bittersweet irony, Klara the robot seems to be the most human character in the whole novel. Ishiguro elegantly tackles issues of class, gender, ability, and our relationship with science. The way that he talks about our precarious relationship with science and the notion of ‘playing god’ puts Klara and the Sun up there with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I honestly cannot gush about this novel enough. Ishiguro’s novel is honestly one of my favourite novels ever, and it is definitely my favourite novel by Ishiguro. Josie and Klara become very close and Klara worries about Josie’s health. Her mother decided to buy her a robot – and AF or artificial friend – called Klara. The main character of the novel, a young girl called Josie, has been elevated but becomes extremely ill.

However, this is extremely dangerous, and some children die or are left very ill. It is not really explained what this elevating process entails, but I assume it is some sort of gene editing that allows people to be smarter. In Ishiguro’s novel, children who meet the right criteria are given the chance to be ‘elevated’. Many of the medical advancements that have helped people throughout this trying time in our global history have come from scientists working in the field of RNA technology, which is part of a bigger discussion about gene editing. In some ways, I think that a lot of what Ishiguro wrote about was almost prophetic in a way which is what makes dystopian texts so fascinating.

I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun when it came out in early 2020.

Goodreads klara and the sun