Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro's eighth novel, his first since the Nobel Prize in Literature, is narrated by Klara, a solar-powered Artificial Friend waiting to be bought. From the store she studies the people who come in to browse and those passing in the street, and she treats the Sun as a living, kindly presence. She is chosen by Josie, a sickly 14-year-old living with her mother on remote prairie, in a future America where some children are genetically altered for academic advantage and taught at home by screen tutors. Klara is warned not to put too much faith in human promises. The novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Bill Gates, who says he loves a good robot story, put it on his list of five books he loved reading in 2021.