In Klara and the Sun, Ishiguro takes us on a compelling but very disorienting journey into the future. The story is narrated by an Artificial Friend – a sentient robot named Klara. Klara has the ability to learn and observe new things, and even reflect on them. But she is also limited in some mysterious ways by her construction. For example when presented with a new space, her mind grids off her field of view into 24 boxes, which seem to help her process new visual information. This is never explained to the reader; just as Klara is trying to decode the human world, the reader must decode the perceptions of Klara.

In this imaginary future America some event has occurred, which has divided our society into the “lifted” and the left behind. We hear humans talk in passing about the bewildering new caste system, but Klara rarely asks questions, or at least the questions we want her to ask.

What actually does it mean to be lifted? Is it a physical process? A medical procedure? A magical intervention? Or is it a more banal way of describing a large scale gifted and talented program? These questions nag at you throughout the book but remain unanswered.

In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, our attention is shifted to the characters’ relationships. Through our robot eyes however, interpersonal life is equally confusing. Is the AF a machine that you put in the trunk of the car, or a person who rides in the front seat? It seems the AF is something in between- not an equal member of the household – present and listening but standing in the corner. One keeps waiting for Klara to express resentment or anger at the inequality, but Klara seems to only exist to serve, and seems totally content with her life.

There are many other mysteries in this novel, but they are better read than explained. I give this book 4👍 out of 5👍.

Lost Children Archive is a many layered narrative, which kneads its layers together in unexpected ways. The primary story is a family road trip from New York to the Southwest. Although we never learn the names of the family members, we learn that both children came from previous marriages – the daughter to the mother (who narrates the first half of the book) and son (who narrates the second half) to the father.

The parents are both sound artists who met while working for the New York Urban Planning department, recording all the (600+) languages of New York. They fell in love, decided to merge their families and marry. When the New York project ended and they each began independent projects. He begins obsessively researching the native Apaches and Geronimo, and she (who we learn is from Mexico), starts working on deportation issues and immigrant children stuck at the border. Her project is prompted by a discussion with a friend whose two daughters had tried to cross in and were being held at the border. They decide to take a road trip with the family to visit the native American sites, and stop at the detention center on the way.

Interspersed with the road trip narrative are excerpts from “Lost Children Elegies”, a novel within a novel which tells of the arduous journey of seven children being smuggled into the US. The Elegies are numbered, and seem to be yet another of the many literary references which Luiselli weaves into her narrative. In fact this is just another story within the story that shifts from reference to narrative when the two unnamed children of the sound artists decide to slip out of the hotel because they think they know the location of the lost children and want to help their parents.

We follow the children on an epic journey through the desert and climbing aboard trains to get to the spot in the desert where they believe they will find the children. Although the reader is filled with an increasing sense of dread, they in fact connect with the children of the lost Children Elegies who jump off the page into the narrative.

Luiselli has in fact published a non-fiction account of her work as a translator for immigrant children, Tell Me How It Ends. The blurring of fact and fiction in Lost Children mirrors her own complex textual relationship to these issues. The book is not an easy read but provides a rich set of texts to help readers understand the challenges of the North American refugee crisis in a way both personal and political. I rate this book 4👍 out of 5👍.

If you’re an epic fantasy buff like me you’ve probably dabbled in Brandon Sanderson. Actually at 1200 pages, dabbling is probably not the right word. Rhythm of War is Book 4 in the Stormlight Archive series. The plot is so complicated that I had to re-read book 3, Oathbringer, before I could figure out what was going on. It didn’t take long for me to get sucked into this world of special powers, conflict among indigenous and colonizing races, and parallel worlds (the Physical and Cognitive Realms). I know it’s not for everyone, but if you like this kind of thing, I give this a 4👍 out of 5👍.

I was introduced to Louise Penny by Lisa from Oblong Books, whose recommendations are usually spot on. This is the first in a series of detective novels based in Canada, and featuring Agent Gamache. Lisa told me “the writing gets better as the series progresses” and I assume that is the case.

I enjoyed reading mystery in a new setting, but the narrative was a little clunky. I give this 2.5👍 out of 5👍.