NYU Reads
What is NYU Reads?
NYU Reads brings the NYU community together around a single common reading, chosen by a University committee made up of faculty, student, and administrator representatives. Building on our undergraduate schools’ first-year reading programs, NYU Reads extends this dialogue beyond Welcome Week and opens it up to the entire University community.
2022-23: Klara and the Sun
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) is our NYU Reads selection for the 2022-23 academic year.
Klara and the Sun is set in a near future in which certain children, selected for genetic enhancement, are closed off from in-person socialization and are given android companions, termed Artificial Friends (AFs). Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel is narrated from the perspective of one such AF, named Klara.
Klara’s naive, semi-formed understanding of human society—presented in Ishiguro’s beautifully spare prose—is perceptive, but just off-kilter enough to elicit questions about some of our assumptions of how the world works. The novel is a subtle exploration of philosophical questions surrounding artificial intelligence, bioengineering, mortality, equality, obsolescence, humanity, and love.
Klara and the Sun was long-listed for both the 2021 Booker Prize and the 2022 Carnegie Medal in Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2022 Prometheus Award. Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017.
Accessing the Book
How can I get copies of Klara and the Sun from NYU Libraries?
NYU Libraries allows access to the e-book of Klara and the Sun. You can read on your desktop OR download the Adobe Digital Editions app for free to read on your desktop or mobile device.
NYU Libraries allows access to the audiobook of Klara and the Sun. You can download the EBSCO Audiobook app from the App StoreⓇ or on Google Play™.
Use your NYU Net-ID to log-in and download these electronic resources. For e-loans or time-based downloads, creation of an account on Adobe Digital Editions will be required for first time use.
How can I get copies of Klara and the Sun from the NYU Bookstore?
You can purchase a paperback copy from the NYU Bookstore here.
For First-Year Students:
By when should I have read the book?
Events and discussions for Klara and the Sun will take place primarily in the Fall 2022 semester, with some additional programming in Spring 2023. We recommend that you plan to read Klara and the Sun over the summer, before the start of the fall semester.