Penguin Random House Secondary Education
Elementary Secondary Higher Ed

Secondary Education Inspire Teaching and Learning with Outstanding Books


Guides

Collections

News
(0)
Wish List
(0)
Wish List
  • Secondary Education

    Inspire Teaching and Learning with Outstanding Books

    • English Language Arts
        • English Language Arts
        • Genre: Fiction
        • Genre: Nonfiction
        • Genre: Drama
        • Genre: Poetry
        • Genre: Literary Criticism
        •  
        • Literature: American
        • Literature: British & Commonwealth
        • Literature: Comparative & World
        •  
        • Communication
        • Writing & Composition
        • ESL / ELL

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Social Studies & History
        • Social Studies
        • Anthropology
        • Civics & Government
        • Economics, Business, and Finance
        • Geography
        • Philosophy & Ethics
        • Psychology
        • Sociology
        • History
        • European History
        • Historiography
        • Topical History
        • United States History
        • Wars, Conflicts, and Events
        • World History

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • STEAM / STEM
        • Science
        • Applied Sciences
        • Astronomy
        • Biology & Life Sciences
        • Earth Science
        • Engineering
        • Environmental Science & Issues
        • Essays
        • Experiments, Projects, and Makerspace
        • History of Science
        • Physical Science
        • References
        • Research & Methodology
        • Scientists, Inventors, & Discoveries
        • The Arts
        • Architecture
        • Art
        • Fashion
        • Media Studies
        • Music
        • Performing Arts
        • Math
        • Algebra
        • Arithmetic
        • Calculus
        • Geometry
        • Precalculus
        • Probability & Statistics
        • Quantitative Reasoning
        • More Math…
        • Computer & IT
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Coding & Programming
        • Computer Education
        • Computer Science Principles
        • Cyber Security
        • Design & User Experience (UX)
        • Entertainment & Games
        • Ethics
        • History of IT
        • Internet / The Web
        • Networking
        • Operating Systems
        • Software Manuals
        • More Computers & IT…

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Books in Spanish & World Languages
        • Books in Spanish & World Languages
        • Books in Spanish
        • World Languages

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Study Aids & Exam Prep
        • Study Aids & Exam Prep
        • College Entrance Exams
        • High School Exams

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • More Disciplines
        • Health, Sports, Games, and Crafts
        • Cooking & Nutrition
        • Crafts & Makerspace
        • Games & Activities
        • Health & Wellness
        • Physical Education
        • Religious Studies & Spirituality
        • Agnostic & Atheist
        • Buddhism
        • Christianity
        • Comparative Religion
        • Confucianism
        • Hindu
        • Islam
        • Judaism
        • Notable People in Religious Studies & Spirituality
        • Taoism
        • Visionary & Metaphysical
        • Education & Professional Learning
        • Child and Adolescent Development
        • Classroom Management
        • Counseling
        • Pedagogy & Methodology
        • Schools and Education
        • Special Education
        • References
        • Almanacs
        • Atlases, Gazetteers, and Maps
        • Bibliographies & Indexes
        • Dictionaries
        • Encyclopedias
        • Research Materials
        • Style Manuals
        • Thesauruses
        • Word Lists
        • Writing Skills

          • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Guides
    • Collections
    • News
    • Other Penguin Random House Education Sites
    • Elementary Ed
    • Higher Ed
Are you still there?
If not, we’ll close this session in:
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Klara and the Sun

A novel

Author Kazuo Ishiguro
Look inside
Best Seller
Hardcover
$29.00 US
Knopf
6.36"W x 9.52"H x 1.24"D  
On sale Mar 02, 2021 | 320 Pages | 978-0-593-31817-1
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Science & Speculative Fiction > Robots & Androids
  • English Language Arts > Literature: British & Commonwealth > Contemporary
  • English Language Arts > Literature: Comparative & World > Contemporary
  • About
  • Author
  • Excerpt
  • Awards
  • Praise
  • Photos
Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.

Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

“One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written. . . .  I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR
 
“A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
 
“It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness.” —Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic
 
“Ishiguro’s prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the perfect book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon. He allows the story to unfold slowly and organically, revealing enough on every page to continue piquing the reader’s curiosity. The novel is an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures . . . a poignant meditation on love and loneliness.” —Maggie Sprayregen, The Associated Press

“A prayer is a postcard asking for a favor, sent upward. Whether our postcards are read by anyone has become the searching doubt of Ishiguro’s recent novels, in which this master, so utterly unlike his peers, goes about creating his ordinary, strange, godless allegories.” —James Wood, The New Yorker
 
“One of the joys of Ishiguro's novels is the way they recall and reframe each other, almost like the same stories told in different formats. . . . Again and again, Ishiguro asks: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a self? And how much of that self can and should we give to others?” —NPR

“For four decades now, Ishiguro has written eloquently about the balancing act of remembering without succumbing irrevocably to the past. Memory and the accounting of memory, its burdens and its reconciliation, have been his subjects. . . .  Klara and the Sun complements [Ishiguro’s] brilliant vision. . . . There’s no narrative instinct more essential, or more human.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Moving and beautiful . . . an unequivocal return to form, a meditation in the subtlest shades on the subject of whether our species will be able to live with everything it has created. . . . [A] feverish read, [a] one-sitter. . . .  Few writers who’ve ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has — not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves.” —The Los Angeles Times

“As with Ishiguro’s other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara’s quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity. . . . This dazzling genre-bending work is a delight.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
© Andrew Testa
KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over fifty languages, and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have each sold more than 2 million copies. He was given a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan. View titles by Kazuo Ishiguro
When we were new, Rosa and I were mid-store, on the magazines table side, and could see through more than half of the window. So we were able to watch the outside – the office workers hurrying by, the taxis, the runners, the tourists, Beggar Man and his dog, the lower part of the RPO Building. Once we were more settled, Manager allowed us to walk up to the front until we were right behind the window display, and then we could see how tall the RPO Building was. And if we were there at just the right time, we would see the Sun on his journey, crossing between the building tops from our side over to the RPO Building side.
 
When I was lucky enough to see him like that, I’d lean my face forward to take in as much of his nourishment as I could, and if Rosa was with me, I’d tell her to do the same. After a minute or two, we’d have to return to our positions, and when we were new, we used to worry that because we often couldn’t see the Sun from mid-store, we’d grow weaker and weaker. Boy AF Rex, who was alongside us then, told us there was nothing to worry about, that the Sun had ways of reaching us wherever we were. He pointed to the floorboards and said, ‘That’s the Sun’s pattern right there. If you’re worried, you can just touch it and get strong again.’
 
There were no customers when he said this, and Manager was busy arranging something up on the Red Shelves, and I didn’t want to disturb her by asking permission. So I gave Rosa a glance, and when she looked back blankly, I took two steps forward, crouched down and reached out both hands to the Sun’s pattern on the floor. But as soon as my fingers touched it, the pattern faded, and though I tried all I could – I patted the spot where it had been, and when that didn’t work, rubbed my hands over the floorboards – it wouldn’t come back. When I stood up again Boy AF Rex said:
 
‘Klara, that was greedy. You girl AFs are always so greedy.’
 
Even though I was new then, it occurred to me straight away it might not have been my fault; that the Sun had withdrawn his pattern by chance just when I’d been touching it. But Boy AF Rex’s face remained serious.
 
‘You took all the nourishment for yourself, Klara. Look, it’s gone almost dark.’
 
Sure enough the light inside the store had become very gloomy. Even outside on the sidewalk, the Tow-Away Zone sign on the lamp post looked gray and faint.
 
‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Rex, then turning to Rosa: ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it all myself.’
 
‘Because of you,’ Boy AF Rex said, ‘I’m going to become weak by evening.’
 
‘You’re making a joke,’ I said to him. ‘I know you are.’
 
‘I’m not making a joke. I could get sick right now. And what about those AFs rear-store? There’s already something not right with them. They’re bound to get worse now. You were greedy, Klara.’
 
‘I don’t believe you,’ I said, but I was no longer so sure. I looked at Rosa, but her expression was still blank.
 
‘I’m feeling sick already,’ Boy AF Rex said. And he sagged forward.
 
‘But you just said yourself. The Sun always has ways to reach us. You’re making a joke, I know you are.’
 
I managed in the end to convince myself Boy AF Rex was teas­ing me. But what I sensed that day was that I had, without mean­ing to, made Rex bring up something uncomfortable, something most AFs in the store preferred not to talk about. Then not long afterwards that thing happened to Boy AF Rex, which made me think that even if he had been joking that day, a part of him had been serious too.
 
It was a bright morning, and Rex was no longer beside us because Manager had moved him to the front alcove. Manager always said that every position was carefully conceived, and that we were as likely to be chosen when standing at one as at another. Even so, we all knew the gaze of a customer entering the store would fall first on the front alcove, and Rex was naturally pleased to get his turn there. We watched him from mid-store, stand­ing with his chin raised, the Sun’s pattern all over him, and Rosa leaned over to me once to say, ‘Oh, he does look wonderful! He’s bound to find a home soon!’
 
On Rex’s third day in the front alcove, a girl came in with her mother. I wasn’t so good then at telling ages, but I remember esti­mating thirteen and a half for the girl, and I think now that was
correct. The mother was an office worker, and from her shoes and suit we could tell she was high-ranking. The girl went straight to Rex and stood in front of him, while the mother came wandering our way, glanced at us, then went on towards the rear, where two AFs were sitting on the Glass Table, swinging their legs freely as Manager had told them to do. At one point the mother called, but the girl ignored her and went on staring up at Rex’s face. Then the child reached out and ran a hand down Rex’s arm. Rex said noth­ing, of course, just smiled down at her and remained still, exactly as we’d been told to do when a customer showed special interest.
 
‘Look!’ Rosa whispered. ‘She’s going to choose him! She loves him. He’s so lucky!’ I nudged Rosa sharply to silence her, because we could easily be heard.
 
Now it was the girl who called to the mother, and then soon they were both standing in front of Boy AF Rex, looking him up and down, the girl sometimes reaching forward and touching him. The two conferred in soft voices, and I heard the girl say at one point, ‘But he’s perfect, Mom. He’s beautiful.’ Then a moment later, the child said, ‘Oh, but Mom, come on.’
 
Manager by this time had brought herself quietly behind them. Eventually the mother turned to Manager and asked:
 
‘Which model is this one?’
 
‘He’s a B2,’ Manager said. ‘Third series. For the right child, Rex will make a perfect companion. In particular, I feel he’ll encourage a conscientious and studious attitude in a young person.’
 
‘Well this young lady here could certainly do with that.’
 
‘Oh, Mother, he’s perfect.’
 
Then the mother said: ‘B2, third series. The ones with the solar absorption problems, right?’
 
She said it just like that, in front of Rex, her smile still on her face. Rex kept smiling too, but the child looked baffled and glanced from Rex to her mother.
 
‘It’s true,’ Manager said, ‘that the third series had a few minor issues at the start. But those reports were greatly exaggerated. In environments with normal levels of light, there’s no problem whatsoever.’
 
‘I’ve heard solar malabsorption can lead to further problems,’ the mother said. ‘Even behavioral ones.’
 
‘With respect, ma’am, series three models have brought immense happiness to many children. Unless you live in Alaska or down a mineshaft, you don’t need to worry.’
 
The mother went on looking at Rex. Then finally she shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Caroline. I can see why you like him. But he’s not for us. We’ll find one for you that’s perfect.’
 
Rex went on smiling until after the customers had left, and even after that, showed no sign of being sad. But that’s when I remem­bered about him making that joke, and I was sure then that those questions about the Sun, about how much of his nourishment we could have, had been in Rex’s mind for some time.
 
Today, of course, I realize Rex wouldn’t have been the only one. But officially, it wasn’t an issue at all – every one of us had specifi­cations that guaranteed we couldn’t be affected by factors such as our positioning within a room. Even so, an AF would feel himself growing lethargic after a few hours away from the Sun, and start to worry there was something wrong with him – that he had some fault unique to him and that if it became known, he’d never find a home.
 
That was one reason why we always thought so much about being in the window. Each of us had been promised our turn, and each of us longed for it to come. That was partly to do with what Manager called the ‘special honor’ of representing the store to the outside. Also, of course, whatever Manager said, we all knew we were more likely to be chosen while in the window. But the big thing, silently understood by us all, was the Sun and his nourish­ment. Rosa did once bring it up with me, in a whisper, a little while before our turn came around.
 
‘Klara, do you think once we’re in the window, we’ll receive so much goodness we’ll never get short again?’
 
I was still quite new then, so didn’t know how to answer, even though the same question had been in my mind.
 
Then our turn finally came, and Rosa and I stepped into the window one morning, making sure not to knock over any of the display the way the pair before us had done the previous week. The store, of course, had yet to open, and I thought the grid would be fully down. But once we’d seated ourselves on the Striped Sofa, I saw there was a narrow gap running along the bottom of the grid – Manager must have raised it a little when checking every­thing was ready for us – and the Sun’s light was making a bright rectangle that came up onto the platform and finished in a straight line just in front of us. We only needed to stretch our feet a little to place them within its warmth. I knew then that whatever the answer to Rosa’s question, we were about to get all the nourish­ment we would need for some time to come. And once Manager touched the switch and the grid climbed up all the way, we became covered in dazzling light.
 
I should confess here that for me, there’d always been another reason for wanting to be in the window which had nothing to do with the Sun’s nourishment or being chosen. Unlike most AFs, unlike Rosa, I’d always longed to see more of the outside – and to see it in all its detail. So once the grid went up, the realization that there was now only the glass between me and the sidewalk, that I was free to see, close up and whole, so many things I’d seen before only as corners and edges, made me so excited that for a moment I nearly forgot about the Sun and his kindness to us.
Copyright © 2021 by Kazuo Ishiguro. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick • ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF BILL GATES'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Vogue, USA Today, Town & Country, The Guardian, Vulture, and more

“One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written….I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun’ is the haunting narrative voice—a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear.” —Booker Prize committee

“It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness.”
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic

“Ishiguro’s prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the perfect book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon. He allows the story to unfold slowly and organically, revealing enough on every page to continue piquing the reader’s curiosity. The novel is an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures...a poignant meditation on love and loneliness”
—Maggie Sprayregen, The Associated Press

“For four decades now, Ishiguro has written eloquently about the balancing act of remembering without succumbing irrevocably to the past. Memory and the accounting of memory, its burdens and its reconciliation, have been his subjects… Klara and the Sun complements [Ishiguro’s] brilliant vision…There’s no narrative instinct more essential, or more human.”
—The New York Times Book Review

 “A prayer is a postcard asking for a favor, sent upward. Whether our postcards are read by anyone has become the searching doubt of Ishiguro’s recent novels, in which this master, so utterly unlike his peers, goes about creating his ordinary, strange, godless allegories.”
—James Wood, The New Yorker

“One of the joys of Ishiguro's novels is the way they recall and reframe each other, almost like the same stories told in different formats...Again and again, Ishiguro asks: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a self? And how much of that self can and should we give to others?”
—NPR


“Moving and beautiful… an unequivocal return to form, a meditation in the subtlest shades on the subject of whether our species will be able to live with everything it has created… [A] feverish read, [a] one-sitter…  Few writers who’ve ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has — not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves.”
—The Los Angeles Times

“As with Ishiguro’s other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara’s quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity . . . This dazzling genre-bending work is a delight.”
—Publishers Weekly [starred review]

“A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.”
—Kirkus Reviews [starred review]

Praise from the UK:

“There is something so steady and beautiful about the way Klara is always approaching connection, like a Zeno’s arrow of the heart. People will absolutely love this book, in part because it enacts the way we learn how to love. Klara and the Sun is wise like a child who decides, just for a little while, to love their doll. “What can children know about genuine love?” Klara asks. The answer, of course, is everything.”
—Anne Enright, The Guardian

“Flawless . . . This is a novel for fans of Never Let Me Go, with which it shares a DNA of emotional openness, the quality of letting us see ourselves from the outside, and a vision of humanity which — while not exactly optimistic — is tender, touching and true.”
—John Self, The Times

“With its hushed intensity of emotion, this fable about robot love and loneliness confirms Ishiguro as a master prose stylist.”
—Ian Thomson, The Evening Standard

“It is innocence that forms Ishiguro’s major subject, explored in novels at once familiar and strange, which only gradually display their true and devastating significance.”
—Jon Day, The Financial Times

“The novel is a masterpiece of great beauty, meticulous control and, as ever, clear, simple prose.”
—Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times

“A deft dystopian fable about the innocence of a robot that asks big questions about existence”
—The Financial Times

About

Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her.

Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

“One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written. . . .  I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR
 
“A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
 
“It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness.” —Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic
 
“Ishiguro’s prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the perfect book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon. He allows the story to unfold slowly and organically, revealing enough on every page to continue piquing the reader’s curiosity. The novel is an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures . . . a poignant meditation on love and loneliness.” —Maggie Sprayregen, The Associated Press

“A prayer is a postcard asking for a favor, sent upward. Whether our postcards are read by anyone has become the searching doubt of Ishiguro’s recent novels, in which this master, so utterly unlike his peers, goes about creating his ordinary, strange, godless allegories.” —James Wood, The New Yorker
 
“One of the joys of Ishiguro's novels is the way they recall and reframe each other, almost like the same stories told in different formats. . . . Again and again, Ishiguro asks: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a self? And how much of that self can and should we give to others?” —NPR

“For four decades now, Ishiguro has written eloquently about the balancing act of remembering without succumbing irrevocably to the past. Memory and the accounting of memory, its burdens and its reconciliation, have been his subjects. . . .  Klara and the Sun complements [Ishiguro’s] brilliant vision. . . . There’s no narrative instinct more essential, or more human.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Moving and beautiful . . . an unequivocal return to form, a meditation in the subtlest shades on the subject of whether our species will be able to live with everything it has created. . . . [A] feverish read, [a] one-sitter. . . .  Few writers who’ve ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has — not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves.” —The Los Angeles Times

“As with Ishiguro’s other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara’s quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity. . . . This dazzling genre-bending work is a delight.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Author

© Andrew Testa
KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over fifty languages, and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have each sold more than 2 million copies. He was given a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan. View titles by Kazuo Ishiguro

Excerpt

When we were new, Rosa and I were mid-store, on the magazines table side, and could see through more than half of the window. So we were able to watch the outside – the office workers hurrying by, the taxis, the runners, the tourists, Beggar Man and his dog, the lower part of the RPO Building. Once we were more settled, Manager allowed us to walk up to the front until we were right behind the window display, and then we could see how tall the RPO Building was. And if we were there at just the right time, we would see the Sun on his journey, crossing between the building tops from our side over to the RPO Building side.
 
When I was lucky enough to see him like that, I’d lean my face forward to take in as much of his nourishment as I could, and if Rosa was with me, I’d tell her to do the same. After a minute or two, we’d have to return to our positions, and when we were new, we used to worry that because we often couldn’t see the Sun from mid-store, we’d grow weaker and weaker. Boy AF Rex, who was alongside us then, told us there was nothing to worry about, that the Sun had ways of reaching us wherever we were. He pointed to the floorboards and said, ‘That’s the Sun’s pattern right there. If you’re worried, you can just touch it and get strong again.’
 
There were no customers when he said this, and Manager was busy arranging something up on the Red Shelves, and I didn’t want to disturb her by asking permission. So I gave Rosa a glance, and when she looked back blankly, I took two steps forward, crouched down and reached out both hands to the Sun’s pattern on the floor. But as soon as my fingers touched it, the pattern faded, and though I tried all I could – I patted the spot where it had been, and when that didn’t work, rubbed my hands over the floorboards – it wouldn’t come back. When I stood up again Boy AF Rex said:
 
‘Klara, that was greedy. You girl AFs are always so greedy.’
 
Even though I was new then, it occurred to me straight away it might not have been my fault; that the Sun had withdrawn his pattern by chance just when I’d been touching it. But Boy AF Rex’s face remained serious.
 
‘You took all the nourishment for yourself, Klara. Look, it’s gone almost dark.’
 
Sure enough the light inside the store had become very gloomy. Even outside on the sidewalk, the Tow-Away Zone sign on the lamp post looked gray and faint.
 
‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Rex, then turning to Rosa: ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it all myself.’
 
‘Because of you,’ Boy AF Rex said, ‘I’m going to become weak by evening.’
 
‘You’re making a joke,’ I said to him. ‘I know you are.’
 
‘I’m not making a joke. I could get sick right now. And what about those AFs rear-store? There’s already something not right with them. They’re bound to get worse now. You were greedy, Klara.’
 
‘I don’t believe you,’ I said, but I was no longer so sure. I looked at Rosa, but her expression was still blank.
 
‘I’m feeling sick already,’ Boy AF Rex said. And he sagged forward.
 
‘But you just said yourself. The Sun always has ways to reach us. You’re making a joke, I know you are.’
 
I managed in the end to convince myself Boy AF Rex was teas­ing me. But what I sensed that day was that I had, without mean­ing to, made Rex bring up something uncomfortable, something most AFs in the store preferred not to talk about. Then not long afterwards that thing happened to Boy AF Rex, which made me think that even if he had been joking that day, a part of him had been serious too.
 
It was a bright morning, and Rex was no longer beside us because Manager had moved him to the front alcove. Manager always said that every position was carefully conceived, and that we were as likely to be chosen when standing at one as at another. Even so, we all knew the gaze of a customer entering the store would fall first on the front alcove, and Rex was naturally pleased to get his turn there. We watched him from mid-store, stand­ing with his chin raised, the Sun’s pattern all over him, and Rosa leaned over to me once to say, ‘Oh, he does look wonderful! He’s bound to find a home soon!’
 
On Rex’s third day in the front alcove, a girl came in with her mother. I wasn’t so good then at telling ages, but I remember esti­mating thirteen and a half for the girl, and I think now that was
correct. The mother was an office worker, and from her shoes and suit we could tell she was high-ranking. The girl went straight to Rex and stood in front of him, while the mother came wandering our way, glanced at us, then went on towards the rear, where two AFs were sitting on the Glass Table, swinging their legs freely as Manager had told them to do. At one point the mother called, but the girl ignored her and went on staring up at Rex’s face. Then the child reached out and ran a hand down Rex’s arm. Rex said noth­ing, of course, just smiled down at her and remained still, exactly as we’d been told to do when a customer showed special interest.
 
‘Look!’ Rosa whispered. ‘She’s going to choose him! She loves him. He’s so lucky!’ I nudged Rosa sharply to silence her, because we could easily be heard.
 
Now it was the girl who called to the mother, and then soon they were both standing in front of Boy AF Rex, looking him up and down, the girl sometimes reaching forward and touching him. The two conferred in soft voices, and I heard the girl say at one point, ‘But he’s perfect, Mom. He’s beautiful.’ Then a moment later, the child said, ‘Oh, but Mom, come on.’
 
Manager by this time had brought herself quietly behind them. Eventually the mother turned to Manager and asked:
 
‘Which model is this one?’
 
‘He’s a B2,’ Manager said. ‘Third series. For the right child, Rex will make a perfect companion. In particular, I feel he’ll encourage a conscientious and studious attitude in a young person.’
 
‘Well this young lady here could certainly do with that.’
 
‘Oh, Mother, he’s perfect.’
 
Then the mother said: ‘B2, third series. The ones with the solar absorption problems, right?’
 
She said it just like that, in front of Rex, her smile still on her face. Rex kept smiling too, but the child looked baffled and glanced from Rex to her mother.
 
‘It’s true,’ Manager said, ‘that the third series had a few minor issues at the start. But those reports were greatly exaggerated. In environments with normal levels of light, there’s no problem whatsoever.’
 
‘I’ve heard solar malabsorption can lead to further problems,’ the mother said. ‘Even behavioral ones.’
 
‘With respect, ma’am, series three models have brought immense happiness to many children. Unless you live in Alaska or down a mineshaft, you don’t need to worry.’
 
The mother went on looking at Rex. Then finally she shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Caroline. I can see why you like him. But he’s not for us. We’ll find one for you that’s perfect.’
 
Rex went on smiling until after the customers had left, and even after that, showed no sign of being sad. But that’s when I remem­bered about him making that joke, and I was sure then that those questions about the Sun, about how much of his nourishment we could have, had been in Rex’s mind for some time.
 
Today, of course, I realize Rex wouldn’t have been the only one. But officially, it wasn’t an issue at all – every one of us had specifi­cations that guaranteed we couldn’t be affected by factors such as our positioning within a room. Even so, an AF would feel himself growing lethargic after a few hours away from the Sun, and start to worry there was something wrong with him – that he had some fault unique to him and that if it became known, he’d never find a home.
 
That was one reason why we always thought so much about being in the window. Each of us had been promised our turn, and each of us longed for it to come. That was partly to do with what Manager called the ‘special honor’ of representing the store to the outside. Also, of course, whatever Manager said, we all knew we were more likely to be chosen while in the window. But the big thing, silently understood by us all, was the Sun and his nourish­ment. Rosa did once bring it up with me, in a whisper, a little while before our turn came around.
 
‘Klara, do you think once we’re in the window, we’ll receive so much goodness we’ll never get short again?’
 
I was still quite new then, so didn’t know how to answer, even though the same question had been in my mind.
 
Then our turn finally came, and Rosa and I stepped into the window one morning, making sure not to knock over any of the display the way the pair before us had done the previous week. The store, of course, had yet to open, and I thought the grid would be fully down. But once we’d seated ourselves on the Striped Sofa, I saw there was a narrow gap running along the bottom of the grid – Manager must have raised it a little when checking every­thing was ready for us – and the Sun’s light was making a bright rectangle that came up onto the platform and finished in a straight line just in front of us. We only needed to stretch our feet a little to place them within its warmth. I knew then that whatever the answer to Rosa’s question, we were about to get all the nourish­ment we would need for some time to come. And once Manager touched the switch and the grid climbed up all the way, we became covered in dazzling light.
 
I should confess here that for me, there’d always been another reason for wanting to be in the window which had nothing to do with the Sun’s nourishment or being chosen. Unlike most AFs, unlike Rosa, I’d always longed to see more of the outside – and to see it in all its detail. So once the grid went up, the realization that there was now only the glass between me and the sidewalk, that I was free to see, close up and whole, so many things I’d seen before only as corners and edges, made me so excited that for a moment I nearly forgot about the Sun and his kindness to us.
Copyright © 2021 by Kazuo Ishiguro. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Awards

  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • FINALIST | 2022
    Prometheus Award
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize
  • LONGLIST | 2021
    Booker Prize

Praise

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick • ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF BILL GATES'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Vogue, USA Today, Town & Country, The Guardian, Vulture, and more

“One of the most affecting and profound novels Ishiguro has written….I'll go for broke and call Klara and the Sun a masterpiece that will make you think about life, mortality, the saving grace of love: in short, the all of it.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“A delicate, haunting story, steeped in sorrow and hope.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“What stays with you in ‘Klara and the Sun’ is the haunting narrative voice—a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear.” —Booker Prize committee

“It aspires to enchantment, or to put it another way, reenchantment, the restoration of magic to a disenchanted world. Ishiguro drapes realism like a thin cloth over a primordial cosmos. Every so often, the cloth slips, revealing the old gods, the terrible beasts, the warring forces of light and darkness.”
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic

“Ishiguro’s prose is soft and quiet. It feels like the perfect book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon. He allows the story to unfold slowly and organically, revealing enough on every page to continue piquing the reader’s curiosity. The novel is an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures...a poignant meditation on love and loneliness”
—Maggie Sprayregen, The Associated Press

“For four decades now, Ishiguro has written eloquently about the balancing act of remembering without succumbing irrevocably to the past. Memory and the accounting of memory, its burdens and its reconciliation, have been his subjects… Klara and the Sun complements [Ishiguro’s] brilliant vision…There’s no narrative instinct more essential, or more human.”
—The New York Times Book Review

 “A prayer is a postcard asking for a favor, sent upward. Whether our postcards are read by anyone has become the searching doubt of Ishiguro’s recent novels, in which this master, so utterly unlike his peers, goes about creating his ordinary, strange, godless allegories.”
—James Wood, The New Yorker

“One of the joys of Ishiguro's novels is the way they recall and reframe each other, almost like the same stories told in different formats...Again and again, Ishiguro asks: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a self? And how much of that self can and should we give to others?”
—NPR


“Moving and beautiful… an unequivocal return to form, a meditation in the subtlest shades on the subject of whether our species will be able to live with everything it has created… [A] feverish read, [a] one-sitter…  Few writers who’ve ever lived have been able to create moods of transience, loss and existential self-doubt as Ishiguro has — not art about the feelings, but the feelings themselves.”
—The Los Angeles Times

“As with Ishiguro’s other works, the rich inner reflections of his protagonists offer big takeaways, and Klara’s quiet but astute observations of human nature land with profound gravity . . . This dazzling genre-bending work is a delight.”
—Publishers Weekly [starred review]

“A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.”
—Kirkus Reviews [starred review]

Praise from the UK:

“There is something so steady and beautiful about the way Klara is always approaching connection, like a Zeno’s arrow of the heart. People will absolutely love this book, in part because it enacts the way we learn how to love. Klara and the Sun is wise like a child who decides, just for a little while, to love their doll. “What can children know about genuine love?” Klara asks. The answer, of course, is everything.”
—Anne Enright, The Guardian

“Flawless . . . This is a novel for fans of Never Let Me Go, with which it shares a DNA of emotional openness, the quality of letting us see ourselves from the outside, and a vision of humanity which — while not exactly optimistic — is tender, touching and true.”
—John Self, The Times

“With its hushed intensity of emotion, this fable about robot love and loneliness confirms Ishiguro as a master prose stylist.”
—Ian Thomson, The Evening Standard

“It is innocence that forms Ishiguro’s major subject, explored in novels at once familiar and strange, which only gradually display their true and devastating significance.”
—Jon Day, The Financial Times

“The novel is a masterpiece of great beauty, meticulous control and, as ever, clear, simple prose.”
—Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times

“A deft dystopian fable about the innocence of a robot that asks big questions about existence”
—The Financial Times

Photos

Additional formats

  • Klara and the Sun
    Klara and the Sun
    A novel
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 01, 2022
  • Klara and the Sun
    Klara and the Sun
    A Novel
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $30.00 US
    Large Print
    Mar 16, 2021
  • Klara and the Sun
    Klara and the Sun
    A novel
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 01, 2022
  • Klara and the Sun
    Klara and the Sun
    A Novel
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $30.00 US
    Large Print
    Mar 16, 2021

Other books in this series

  • More Than I Love My Life
    More Than I Love My Life
    A novel
    David Grossman
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 12, 2022
  • The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
    The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
    A novel
    Richard Flanagan
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 26, 2022
  • Trio
    Trio
    A novel
    William Boyd
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 08, 2022
  • Antiquities and Other Stories
    Antiquities and Other Stories
    Cynthia Ozick
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 01, 2022
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Joan Didion
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Palimpsest
    Palimpsest
    A Memoir
    Gore Vidal
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 16, 2021
  • Season of Anomy
    Season of Anomy
    Wole Soyinka
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 14, 2021
  • The Interpreters
    The Interpreters
    Wole Soyinka
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 14, 2021
  • Here We Are
    Here We Are
    A novel
    Graham Swift
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 10, 2021
  • The Fire Next Time
    The Fire Next Time
    James Baldwin
    $22.00 US
    Hardcover
    Jul 06, 2021
  • Juneteenth
    Juneteenth
    A Novel
    Ralph Ellison
    $25.00 US
    Hardcover
    May 25, 2021
  • Think, Write, Speak
    Think, Write, Speak
    Uncollected Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Letters to the Editor
    Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov Literary Trust
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 09, 2021
  • The Wapshot Chronicle
    The Wapshot Chronicle
    John Cheever
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 02, 2021
  • Love in the Time of Cholera (Illustrated Edition)
    Love in the Time of Cholera (Illustrated Edition)
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 27, 2020
  • The Scandal of the Century
    The Scandal of the Century
    And Other Writings
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 15, 2020
  • Personal Writings
    Personal Writings
    Albert Camus
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 04, 2020
  • Berta Isla
    Berta Isla
    A novel
    Javier Marías
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 07, 2020
  • Life for Sale
    Life for Sale
    Yukio Mishima
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2020
  • The Source of Self-Regard
    The Source of Self-Regard
    Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
    Toni Morrison
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 14, 2020
  • Beloved
    Beloved
    Toni Morrison
    $32.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 22, 2019
  • Myra Breckinridge
    Myra Breckinridge
    Gore Vidal
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 21, 2019
  • Warlight
    Warlight
    Michael Ondaatje
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 02, 2019
  • I'm Not Here to Give a Speech
    I'm Not Here to Give a Speech
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2019
  • The Myth of Sisyphus
    The Myth of Sisyphus
    Albert Camus
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 06, 2018
  • Between Eternities
    Between Eternities
    And Other Writings
    Javier Marías
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 28, 2018
  • Men Without Women
    Men Without Women
    Stories
    Haruki Murakami
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 01, 2018
  • The Boat Rocker
    The Boat Rocker
    A Novel
    Ha Jin
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 17, 2017
  • Absolutely on Music
    Absolutely on Music
    Conversations
    Haruki Murakami, Seiji Ozawa
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 03, 2017
  • Keeping an Eye Open
    Keeping an Eye Open
    Essays on Art
    Julian Barnes
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 13, 2017
  • I Am Not Your Negro
    I Am Not Your Negro
    A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck
    James Baldwin, Raoul Peck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 07, 2017
  • Wind/Pinball
    Wind/Pinball
    Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 (Two Novels)
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 03, 2016
  • God Help the Child
    God Help the Child
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 26, 2016
  • The Buried Giant
    The Buried Giant
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 05, 2016
  • Amnesia
    Amnesia
    Peter Carey
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Dec 08, 2015
  • The Prophet
    The Prophet
    Kahlil Gibran
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Jul 21, 2015
  • Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
    Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
    Haruki Murakami
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 05, 2015
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North
    The Narrow Road to the Deep North
    Richard Flanagan
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 14, 2015
  • The News: A User's Manual
    The News: A User's Manual
    Alain De Botton
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Dec 02, 2014
  • Paradise
    Paradise
    Toni Morrison
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2014
  • Giovanni's Room
    Giovanni's Room
    James Baldwin
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 12, 2013
  • Go Tell It on the Mountain
    Go Tell It on the Mountain
    James Baldwin
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 12, 2013
  • Dear Life
    Dear Life
    Stories
    Alice Munro
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 30, 2013
  • The Complete Stories
    The Complete Stories
    Truman Capote
    $24.00 US
    Hardcover
    May 07, 2013
  • In Cold Blood
    In Cold Blood
    Truman Capote
    $24.00 US
    Hardcover
    Feb 19, 2013
  • 1Q84
    1Q84
    Haruki Murakami
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 22, 2013
  • Religion for Atheists
    Religion for Atheists
    A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
    Alain De Botton
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2013
  • Home
    Home
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 01, 2013
  • Through the Window
    Through the Window
    Seventeen Essays and a Short Story
    Julian Barnes
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Nov 20, 2012
  • The Remains of the Day
    The Remains of the Day
    Introduction by Salman Rushdie
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $30.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Cat's Table
    The Cat's Table
    Michael Ondaatje
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Jun 12, 2012
  • The Sense of an Ending
    The Sense of an Ending
    Julian Barnes
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 29, 2012
  • I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
    I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
    Maxine Hong Kingston
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 14, 2012
  • The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist
    The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist
    Understanding What Happens When We Write and Read Novels
    Orhan Pamuk
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 01, 2011
  • The Masque of Africa
    The Masque of Africa
    Glimpses of African Belief
    V. S. Naipaul
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2011
  • Nemesis
    Nemesis
    Philip Roth
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The English Patient
    The English Patient
    Introduction by Pico Iyer
    Michael Ondaatje
    $24.95 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Cross of Redemption
    The Cross of Redemption
    Uncollected Writings
    James Baldwin
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 06, 2011
  • Ransom
    Ransom
    A Novel
    David Malouf
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2011
  • On the Beach
    On the Beach
    Nevil Shute
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 09, 2010
  • MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS
    MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS
    A Play
    Athol Fugard
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 13, 2009
  • Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus
    Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus
    A Dual-Language Edition
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 06, 2009
  • A Mercy
    A Mercy
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 11, 2009
  • Dispatches
    Dispatches
    Introduction by Robert Stone
    Michael Herr
    $25.00 US
    Hardcover
    Feb 17, 2009
  • Travels with Herodotus
    Travels with Herodotus
    Ryszard Kapuscinski
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 10, 2008
  • The Architecture of Happiness
    The Architecture of Happiness
    Alain De Botton
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2008
  • Love in the Time of Cholera
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 05, 2007
  • The Bluest Eye
    The Bluest Eye
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 08, 2007
  • The Road
    The Road
    Cormac McCarthy
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2007
  • Selected Poems of W. H. Auden
    Selected Poems of W. H. Auden
    W. H. Auden
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 13, 2007
  • No Country for Old Men
    No Country for Old Men
    Cormac McCarthy
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 11, 2006
  • Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure
    Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure
    The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika
    Giles Foden
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Last Night
    Last Night
    James Salter
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Never Let Me Go
    Never Let Me Go
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Kafka on the Shore
    Kafka on the Shore
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 03, 2006
  • The Plot Against America
    The Plot Against America
    Philip Roth
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 27, 2005
  • Too Brief a Treat
    Too Brief a Treat
    The Letters of Truman Capote
    Truman Capote
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 13, 2005
  • Status Anxiety
    Status Anxiety
    Alain De Botton
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 10, 2005
  • Song of Solomon
    Song of Solomon
    Toni Morrison
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Sula
    Sula
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • The City and the Pillar
    The City and the Pillar
    A Novel
    Gore Vidal
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Dec 02, 2003
  • The Razor's Edge
    The Razor's Edge
    W. Somerset Maugham
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2003
  • Julian
    Julian
    A Novel
    Gore Vidal
    $18.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 12, 2003
  • You're an Animal, Viskovitz
    You're an Animal, Viskovitz
    Alessandro Boffa
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 17, 2003
  • Selected Essays of John Berger
    Selected Essays of John Berger
    John Berger
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2003
  • The Shape of a Pocket
    The Shape of a Pocket
    John Berger
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2003
  • A New World Order
    A New World Order
    Essays
    Caryl Phillips
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 30, 2002
  • A Wild Sheep Chase
    A Wild Sheep Chase
    A Novel
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 09, 2002
  • The Shadow of the Sun
    The Shadow of the Sun
    Ryszard Kapuscinski
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 09, 2002
  • A Fine Balance
    A Fine Balance
    Rohinton Mistry
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 30, 2001
  • Quarrel & Quandary
    Quarrel & Quandary
    Essays
    Cynthia Ozick
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 13, 2001
  • More Than I Love My Life
    More Than I Love My Life
    A novel
    David Grossman
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 12, 2022
  • The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
    The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
    A novel
    Richard Flanagan
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 26, 2022
  • Trio
    Trio
    A novel
    William Boyd
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 08, 2022
  • Antiquities and Other Stories
    Antiquities and Other Stories
    Cynthia Ozick
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 01, 2022
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Joan Didion
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Palimpsest
    Palimpsest
    A Memoir
    Gore Vidal
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 16, 2021
  • Season of Anomy
    Season of Anomy
    Wole Soyinka
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 14, 2021
  • The Interpreters
    The Interpreters
    Wole Soyinka
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 14, 2021
  • Here We Are
    Here We Are
    A novel
    Graham Swift
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 10, 2021
  • The Fire Next Time
    The Fire Next Time
    James Baldwin
    $22.00 US
    Hardcover
    Jul 06, 2021
  • Juneteenth
    Juneteenth
    A Novel
    Ralph Ellison
    $25.00 US
    Hardcover
    May 25, 2021
  • Think, Write, Speak
    Think, Write, Speak
    Uncollected Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Letters to the Editor
    Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov Literary Trust
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 09, 2021
  • The Wapshot Chronicle
    The Wapshot Chronicle
    John Cheever
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 02, 2021
  • Love in the Time of Cholera (Illustrated Edition)
    Love in the Time of Cholera (Illustrated Edition)
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 27, 2020
  • The Scandal of the Century
    The Scandal of the Century
    And Other Writings
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 15, 2020
  • Personal Writings
    Personal Writings
    Albert Camus
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 04, 2020
  • Berta Isla
    Berta Isla
    A novel
    Javier Marías
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 07, 2020
  • Life for Sale
    Life for Sale
    Yukio Mishima
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2020
  • The Source of Self-Regard
    The Source of Self-Regard
    Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
    Toni Morrison
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 14, 2020
  • Beloved
    Beloved
    Toni Morrison
    $32.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 22, 2019
  • Myra Breckinridge
    Myra Breckinridge
    Gore Vidal
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 21, 2019
  • Warlight
    Warlight
    Michael Ondaatje
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 02, 2019
  • I'm Not Here to Give a Speech
    I'm Not Here to Give a Speech
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2019
  • The Myth of Sisyphus
    The Myth of Sisyphus
    Albert Camus
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 06, 2018
  • Between Eternities
    Between Eternities
    And Other Writings
    Javier Marías
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 28, 2018
  • Men Without Women
    Men Without Women
    Stories
    Haruki Murakami
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 01, 2018
  • The Boat Rocker
    The Boat Rocker
    A Novel
    Ha Jin
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 17, 2017
  • Absolutely on Music
    Absolutely on Music
    Conversations
    Haruki Murakami, Seiji Ozawa
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 03, 2017
  • Keeping an Eye Open
    Keeping an Eye Open
    Essays on Art
    Julian Barnes
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 13, 2017
  • I Am Not Your Negro
    I Am Not Your Negro
    A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck
    James Baldwin, Raoul Peck
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 07, 2017
  • Wind/Pinball
    Wind/Pinball
    Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 (Two Novels)
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 03, 2016
  • God Help the Child
    God Help the Child
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 26, 2016
  • The Buried Giant
    The Buried Giant
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 05, 2016
  • Amnesia
    Amnesia
    Peter Carey
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Dec 08, 2015
  • The Prophet
    The Prophet
    Kahlil Gibran
    $9.95 US
    Paperback
    Jul 21, 2015
  • Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
    Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
    Haruki Murakami
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 05, 2015
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North
    The Narrow Road to the Deep North
    Richard Flanagan
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 14, 2015
  • The News: A User's Manual
    The News: A User's Manual
    Alain De Botton
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Dec 02, 2014
  • Paradise
    Paradise
    Toni Morrison
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2014
  • Giovanni's Room
    Giovanni's Room
    James Baldwin
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 12, 2013
  • Go Tell It on the Mountain
    Go Tell It on the Mountain
    James Baldwin
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 12, 2013
  • Dear Life
    Dear Life
    Stories
    Alice Munro
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 30, 2013
  • The Complete Stories
    The Complete Stories
    Truman Capote
    $24.00 US
    Hardcover
    May 07, 2013
  • In Cold Blood
    In Cold Blood
    Truman Capote
    $24.00 US
    Hardcover
    Feb 19, 2013
  • 1Q84
    1Q84
    Haruki Murakami
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 22, 2013
  • Religion for Atheists
    Religion for Atheists
    A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
    Alain De Botton
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2013
  • Home
    Home
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 01, 2013
  • Through the Window
    Through the Window
    Seventeen Essays and a Short Story
    Julian Barnes
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Nov 20, 2012
  • The Remains of the Day
    The Remains of the Day
    Introduction by Salman Rushdie
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $30.00 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Cat's Table
    The Cat's Table
    Michael Ondaatje
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Jun 12, 2012
  • The Sense of an Ending
    The Sense of an Ending
    Julian Barnes
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 29, 2012
  • I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
    I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
    Maxine Hong Kingston
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 14, 2012
  • The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist
    The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist
    Understanding What Happens When We Write and Read Novels
    Orhan Pamuk
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 01, 2011
  • The Masque of Africa
    The Masque of Africa
    Glimpses of African Belief
    V. S. Naipaul
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2011
  • Nemesis
    Nemesis
    Philip Roth
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The English Patient
    The English Patient
    Introduction by Pico Iyer
    Michael Ondaatje
    $24.95 US
    Hardcover
    Oct 04, 2011
  • The Cross of Redemption
    The Cross of Redemption
    Uncollected Writings
    James Baldwin
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 06, 2011
  • Ransom
    Ransom
    A Novel
    David Malouf
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2011
  • On the Beach
    On the Beach
    Nevil Shute
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 09, 2010
  • MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS
    MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS
    A Play
    Athol Fugard
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 13, 2009
  • Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus
    Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus
    A Dual-Language Edition
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 06, 2009
  • A Mercy
    A Mercy
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 11, 2009
  • Dispatches
    Dispatches
    Introduction by Robert Stone
    Michael Herr
    $25.00 US
    Hardcover
    Feb 17, 2009
  • Travels with Herodotus
    Travels with Herodotus
    Ryszard Kapuscinski
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 10, 2008
  • The Architecture of Happiness
    The Architecture of Happiness
    Alain De Botton
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2008
  • Love in the Time of Cholera
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    Gabriel García Márquez
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 05, 2007
  • The Bluest Eye
    The Bluest Eye
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 08, 2007
  • The Road
    The Road
    Cormac McCarthy
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2007
  • Selected Poems of W. H. Auden
    Selected Poems of W. H. Auden
    W. H. Auden
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 13, 2007
  • No Country for Old Men
    No Country for Old Men
    Cormac McCarthy
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 11, 2006
  • Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure
    Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure
    The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika
    Giles Foden
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Last Night
    Last Night
    James Salter
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Never Let Me Go
    Never Let Me Go
    Kazuo Ishiguro
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 14, 2006
  • Kafka on the Shore
    Kafka on the Shore
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 03, 2006
  • The Plot Against America
    The Plot Against America
    Philip Roth
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 27, 2005
  • Too Brief a Treat
    Too Brief a Treat
    The Letters of Truman Capote
    Truman Capote
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 13, 2005
  • Status Anxiety
    Status Anxiety
    Alain De Botton
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 10, 2005
  • Song of Solomon
    Song of Solomon
    Toni Morrison
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Sula
    Sula
    Toni Morrison
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 08, 2004
  • The City and the Pillar
    The City and the Pillar
    A Novel
    Gore Vidal
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Dec 02, 2003
  • The Razor's Edge
    The Razor's Edge
    W. Somerset Maugham
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2003
  • Julian
    Julian
    A Novel
    Gore Vidal
    $18.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 12, 2003
  • You're an Animal, Viskovitz
    You're an Animal, Viskovitz
    Alessandro Boffa
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 17, 2003
  • Selected Essays of John Berger
    Selected Essays of John Berger
    John Berger
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2003
  • The Shape of a Pocket
    The Shape of a Pocket
    John Berger
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2003
  • A New World Order
    A New World Order
    Essays
    Caryl Phillips
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 30, 2002
  • A Wild Sheep Chase
    A Wild Sheep Chase
    A Novel
    Haruki Murakami
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 09, 2002
  • The Shadow of the Sun
    The Shadow of the Sun
    Ryszard Kapuscinski
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 09, 2002
  • A Fine Balance
    A Fine Balance
    Rohinton Mistry
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 30, 2001
  • Quarrel & Quandary
    Quarrel & Quandary
    Essays
    Cynthia Ozick
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 13, 2001
Related Articles
General Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School Graphic Novels Classroom Libraries Translanguaging Collections
April 19 2022

NEW! PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more

NEW! PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

General Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School Graphic Novels Classroom Libraries Translanguaging Collections
April 19 2022
General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Social Studies The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels Classroom Libraries Environmental Science
October 22 2020

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

“Books are a students’ passport to entering and actively participating in a global society with the empathy, compassion, and knowledge it takes to become the problem solvers the world needs.” –Laura Robb   Research shows that reading and literacy directly impacts students’ academic success and personal growth. To help promote the importance of daily independent

Read more

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Social Studies The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels Classroom Libraries Environmental Science
October 22 2020
Connect with Us!

Get the latest news on all things Secondary Education. Learn about our books, authors, teacher events, and more!

Friend us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe on YouTube

View us on Pinterest

Our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire.

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House

About Secondary Education

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Conferences
  • Contact your PreK-12 Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads

Penguin Random House

  • PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • global.PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

About Secondary Education

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Conferences

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads
  • Contact your PreK-12 Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House

  • PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • global.PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House
Back to Top

/

1/2   Download JPEG

Photograph credit: (C) 2021 by Penguin Random House
Photograph credit: (C) 2021 by Penguin Random House

2/2   Download JPEG

Photograph credit: (C) 2021 by Penguin Random House
Photograph credit: (C) 2021 by Penguin Random House