After Annie Bot, I wanted a different sort of robot story so I pulled this out of my TBR file where it had been for several years.

Klara is a robot  female Artificial Friend marketed as companions for young people. We first meet in the store hoping to be chosen. She can only see part of the street and sky outside the store and spends her time studying what she sees. The robots are solar powered and, Klara personifies the sun as the nourisher, deity-like entity. She’s probably the only robot to have formed something like a religion. Klara is remarkably perceptive, observant, and curious about what she sees. She’s naive but is able to reason very well based on what she sees. Her conclusions often make the reader smile.

She and a sickly young girl, Josie, bond over several visits and Klara finally finds a home. Her loyalty and devotion to Josie’s well-being are without limits. When her young charge falls deathly ill, Klara makes a desperate plan, consistent within her logic, to save Josie.

Klara and the Sun is a fable of limitless, selfless devotion toward another. To grab a Bible quote out of context that applies here: Matthew 25:23 — Well done, good and faithful servant. Klara is the only likable, relatable and perhaps the most human character in the book. Frankly, humans don’t come out all that well. I doubt there is a reader who wouldn’t want a Klara in their lives.

Because this is a fable and we’re seeing the story through the eyes of a naive robot, the prose isn’t complex but it is very affecting. I loved every bit of the story and the way it is written.

I should warn you that it will rip your heart out, at least it did mine.