Book Reviews Photo by Dominik Scythe / Unsplash A new book by a Nobel laureate and Booker award-winning author always brings with it a sense of trepidation. Will the new novel live up to the already established high expectations? Klara and the Sun (Knopf, 2021) is particularly tricky because it revisits questions about life in posthuman futures, explored partly in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). However, Ishiguro’s new novel and its nonhuman narrator, Klara, weave a spell on the reader from the opening pages that continues to be all-absorbing. We forget that the narrator is a robot and remain involved in the vicissitudes of her life, till the final pages when she is waiting for an end to her powers by the slow decline of her electronic circuitry. As we are immersed in the trajectory of Klara’s life, Ishiguro invites us to explore the question of what it is that constitutes us as human. To what extent can machines approximate the qualities of a human, and is there anything unique in the human mind in a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly powerful? The novel begins with Klara being displayed in the window of a store selling AI “friends” to children. Klara is very observant and records her perceptions in her memories for future use. She forms an instantaneous bond with Josie when she comes in to check out AI friends and then waits for many weeks for Josie to come back and take her home as promised.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-01 21:50:34 UTC ]
Ian McEwan, the award-winning author, has admitted feeling "a little dubious" about people being compelled to study his books, after helping his son with an essay about his own novel and receiving a C. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2018-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author and schoolteacher Pamela Butchart is set to go stratospheric in 2018, with a World book Day title and a Secret Seven revamp in the pipeline. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author, educator, activist, and musician Julius Lester, known for a body of work focused on African-American culture, as well as for his fierce advocacy for books for black children by black creators, died on January 18 at the age of 78. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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His Dark Materials novelist says today’s steep price cuts devalue authors’ work and cheapen the experience of readingWith more than two months to go before Philip Pullman’s long-awaited new novel from the world of His Dark Materials is published, pre-orders have sent La Belle Sauvage flying up... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author and illustrator Lauren Child has been named as the next Waterstones Children’s Laureate, an honour she says she “wasn’t expecting”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers is publishing a new book with HarperCollins at the end of this year and has signed a new two-book deal with the publisher for future publishing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning author, poet, and playwright Joyce Carol Thomas, whose works largely focused on family and the African-American experience, died on August 17. She was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Qualifications are less important than they used to be when it comes to recruiting, with more emphasis on potential and inherent talent, Penguin Random House (PRH) HR director Neil Morrison said at a London Book Fair seminar entitled “Challenging Tradition: What Skills are Trending Now?” Jen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary world praises Miller for his intelligence, wit and literary acumen, and lasting pride in his Scottish rootsKarl Miller, founding editor of the London Review of Books, critic and award-winning author, has died, aged 83.After stints as literary editor of both the Spectator and the New... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new study finds that reading literary fiction “leads people to perform better on tests that measure empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence." Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 14:57 Bold block colours and striking symbols define a new series of Icon books designed to reach young professionals intent on self-improvement. The guides aim to present weighty subjects in such areas as cognitive behavioural... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 14:57 Bold block colours and striking symbols define a new series of Icon books designed to reach young professionals intent on self-improvement. The guides aim to present weighty subjects in such areas as cognitive behavioural... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this