Welcome to J-Sei’s Virtual Book Club
Our next book that we’ll be reading together is
KLARA AND THE SUN (2021) by Kazuo Ishiguro
Book Club members will have a two-month window in which to read the book (it’s about 300 pages long, separated into 6 parts of varying lengths). Along the way, you will be encouraged to add your input to the J-Sei Book Club blog and engage with other readers. In early December, we’ll meet as a group to discuss what we’ve read.
ENGAGING IN BOOK CLUB
Join the Club, Buy the Book
JOIN BOOK CLUB – Join the J-Sei Virtual Book Club and connect with others as we delve into a different book each season. For those interested in participating, send inquiry here (please include “Book Club” in your email’s subject line).
BUY THE BOOK – We have arranged with Eastwind Books to handle book sales. Just order the book online at the discounted price of 10% off by entering coupon code JSEI. You can elect to pick up at the store, arrange for shipping, or designate J-Sei for delivery/pick-up in your order (include this in the “Note to Seller” box when you place your order).
READING – Read the book at your own pace. While you’re reading, you’ll be notified when a posting has been updated as a check-in and to solicit your feedback.
REFLECTING – As you’re reading, you can access the secure J-Sei Book Club webpage (password-protected) anytime. On this Members-only webpage you’re free to submit observations, opinions, and questions in the Comment area as it strikes you and share your impressions with fellow Book Club members. Check back regularly to read comments submitted by the moderator and by other Book Club members.
CHAT – For a real-time online chat with fellow Book Club members, connect to DISCORD. Instructions to connect to the J-Sei Discord server are provided on the Members-only webpage.
DISCUSS – After allowing time for members to finish reading the book, we will schedule a Zoom meeting to get together and hear everybody’s thoughts about the book. Other special events may occur; members will be notified in advance. Thank you for your interest in J-Sei Book Club. Happy reading!
— Kathy Hashimoto, moderator
In Klara and the Sun, his eighth novel and first since winning the Nobel Prize, author Kazuo Ishiguro takes readers to a vaguely futuristic, technologically advanced setting to present a moving parable about love, humanity, and science. Klara, the title character and narrator, is a solar-powered Artificial Friend (AF), a humanlike robot designed to be a child’s companion. When Klara is acquired to become AF to a bright fourteen-year-old named Josie who appears to be ailing, Klara is able to explore the wide world beyond the four walls of the retail store she’s been inhabiting. Written in Ishiguro’s characteristic spare and reserved prose, he creates an unforgettable protagonist in Klara, whose astute observations and utterly sincere behavior provide lessons for all humans to learn from.
“moving and beautiful” – Los Angeles Times
“Klara and the Sun [is] a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.” – NPR
About the Author
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is an English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954. His mother, Shizuko, along with members of her immediate family, survived the atom bomb that was dropped on the city in August 1945.
Ishiguro moved with his parents and older sister in 1960, at age five, to live in Britain after his father, a research oceanographer, was invited to work for the British government at the National Institute of Oceanography. The family settled in Surrey, thirty miles south of London, expecting to stay for two years at most; however, the family remained in England and never returned to Japan.
In 1974, Ishiguro enrolled in the University of Kent at Canterbury and attained his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy. After graduating, Ishiguro started writing fiction and entered the University of East Anglia in 1980 for a Master of Arts course in Creative Writing. He began to publish short stories and completed a novel, A Pale View of the Hills (1982). He became a full-time writer in 1983.
Ishiguro has published a total of eight novels, including Booker Prize–winning The Remains of the Day (1989). His books have been translated widely and have earned honors around the world. In addition, he has received several life-time achievement awards.
Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”
Previous Book Club books
