April 2021

Ishiguro has an extraordinary gift of observation and in his latest work he turns his unique fiction writing skills to a story that takes us to a dystopic but nevertheless unnervingly realistic world where children are gifted 'Artificial Friends'. 

Written from the viewpoint of Klara, one of these Artificial Friends, we hear the unnervingly human observations she makes as she waits patiently and expectantly in a shop window for someone to buy her. After catching the eye of a young teenage girl, Josie, Klara is bought by the girl’s mother. We are then taken on an absorbing and moving journey which explores friendship, love and what it means to be human. The writing is beautiful and haunting (as all Ishiguro’s works are), and encourages us to explore our own thoughts and perspectives around the complex interplay of all these areas. 

Not a ‘traditional’ recommendation (insofar as it is not a book about data or law), but it highlights how technology, notions of artificial intelligence and the possibilities that humankind are now presented with are moving into mainstream cultural narrative.