Josie suffers from a deadly illness as a result of genetic engineering to enhance her intelligence.

She demonstrates she is independent, yet empathetic.She is chosen by a teenage girl Josie to be her companion and bought by her mother for more sinister reasons.

From the very start, Klara busts our deepest concern about AI, that of trust. Klara is intriguing, charismatic and sparkles like the sun her survival depends on. In ‘Klara and the sun’ we see the world from the pixilated eyes of an AF (Artificial Friend). After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?’ It is perhaps the only time he thinks purely for himself. Mr Stevens reflects in a moment of clarity, ‘I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.

Now you can put up your feet and enjoy it,’ a stranger striking a conversation remarks. The pompous yet vulnerable butler is so blinded by his duty that he sabotages his own happiness and attributes false motives to his master’s obvious iniquitous activities. We only get glimpses of reality when he interacts with other characters. Even his narrative voice distances itself from himself by the use of plural rather than singular pronouns. He projects, avoids emotions like the plague and misreads situations in his quest for professionalism. We peel away Mr Stevens’ defensive outer layers to discover what he isn’t saying. Layers of conscious thought, prattling prose and a concocted notion of dignity need to be sifted for the subconscious. We aren’t sitting in the passenger seat here, we are peddling until the finish line. Ishiguro expects his readers to work hard, he wants us to imagine, read between the lines and hear the unsaid. We discover how he’s struggling to adapt to a changing world and his blind trust in his Nazi sympathising former employer Lord Darlington. Remains of the Day, winner of 1989 Booker prize, and later adapted into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins, follows an ageing old world English butler on a six-day road trip. Both tackle the themes of unconditional trust and love and a lifetime spent in self-sacrificing service. Critics have compared his latest masterpiece to his former sci-fi clone romance ‘Never let me go’ but in essence, I feel it’s more like ‘Remains of the day’. I have just finished two books ‘Remains of the day’ and ‘Klara and the Sun’ by Kazou Ishiguro back to back and Chandler’s line comes to mind ‘could I be any more awed?!’. ‘The remains of the day’ & ‘Klara and the Sun’: By Kazou Ishiguro Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers.

Books like remains of the day