Klara And The Sun: Dua Lipa & Kazuo Ishiguro On Technology & Human Loneliness

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Dua Lipa (0:30)

Today, we have a very special treat for you.

I'm sitting down with Kazuo Ishiguro, the Nobel Prize winning author of The Remains Of The Day, Never Let Me Go, and one of my personal favorites, Klara And The Sun, which we are talking about today. Klara And The Sun is a coming of age story with a difference. Klara is an AF, an artificial friend, who is bought as a companion for 14-year-old Josie. The crisis at the heart of the novel is that Josie is sick. With Klara's help, will she recover?

And if she doesn't, will her mother survive the loss? The book asks questions about what it means to be human, the impact of artificial intelligence, and whether we're blindly heading towards a more unequal world. But it never loses sight of our capacity to love in all its forms. My conversation with Kazuo Ishiguro, coming up.

Kazuo Ishiguro (1:14)

The book isn't really worried so much about the issues around AI that people are discussing at the moment. I am more worried about the issues around genetic engineering and genetic technology.

Dua Lipa (1:28)

Is it true that before you started writing fiction, you hoped to be the new Bob Dylan?

Kazuo Ishiguro (1:33)

I'm not sure about the new Bob Dylan. I mean, it's kind of a shorthand. I did have an acoustic guitar, and I sang in a lot of, like, folk clubs, you know.

Dua Lipa (1:40)

As someone who's written a lot for film, were you tempted to write the screenplay?

Kazuo Ishiguro (1:45)

When I filmed adaptations that aren't that good, it's always because people have tried to be too loyal to the original book. So I'm kind of like a cheerleader, and I say, yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, go ahead, try it.

Dua Lipa (2:03)

You know, speaking to you is just so worth the wait. I'm so grateful that we get to have this conversation. It's so hard for me to just pick one of your books that I love. But I did, I loved Klara And The Sun so much, and I read it in 2021 when it came out, and it was kind of the gateway drug for me, for all your other books. And I think since then I've read pretty much all of them. I think The Unconsoled is the next one on my list. That's one I haven't read yet. And I think that alongside George Saunders, you are my most read author. I just, I love your writing, and I just loved Klara And The Sun because there's this, I don't know, there's such a sweetness about it, about like our need of friendship, and also the, I don't know, the need for love, you know, and the different forms it takes. And I feel like that really, it just really, really touched me.

And like all my favorite books, it's also quite sad. It just really got to me. I guess this idea of this young girl not really having anybody to turn to except for, I guess, in some ways, an imaginary friend.

But yeah, I loved it. And I'm just so happy that we get to talk about it. And there's just so much that I want to ask you.

Kazuo Ishiguro (3:27)

It's wonderful to hear you say this. I'm so thrilled that you've read my work. I mean, that's fantastic.

I warn you about The Unconsoled. A lot of people find that one a bit weird.

Dua Lipa (3:41)

Well, I like weird.

Kazuo Ishiguro (3:42)

Yeah, okay.

Dua Lipa (3:43)

I like weird. But I'm, yeah, I just, I love all the worlds that you build.

And I always start my conversations by asking the authors to tell us a little bit about the book in their own words. What is Klara And The Sun about? When and where is it set? And who do we meet?

Kazuo Ishiguro (4:05)

It's about this little robot girl called Klara. And it starts with her in a store. And these robot girls are called artificial friends. They can be boys or girls. And we live in a world where adolescent people, teenagers, typically, buy one as companions, because the world they live in is quite atomized and quite lonely.