Service95 Book Club Selects KLARA AND THE SUN for Monthly Read

Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club has announced details for October's monthly read, Klara And The Sun by Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. The Service95 Book Club will offer exclusive content from Dua Lipa and Ishiguro throughout the month on service95.com, across social media, and via the Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa podcast, where readers can check out Dua Lipa's interview with Ishiguro.

Speaking about Klara And The Sun, Dua Lipa shares: 'I first read 'Klara And The Sun' when it was published in 2021 and I've devoured Kazuo Ishiguro's entire back catalogue since. I'm totally hooked. Klara is an AF – an artificial friend – designed to be a caring companion to 14-year-old Josie. In many ways it's a traditional coming of age story. But right from the start, it's clear this isn't quite the world we know. Children are taught remotely via on-screen tutors and are genetically edited, or 'lifted,' in a procedure intended to give them advanced intelligence but at great cost – sometimes their very lives. The crisis at the heart of the novel is whether Josie, who is sick, will recover with Klara's help and, if she doesn't, will her mother survive the loss? Klara begs the sun to pour its nourishment into Josie with an unquestioning belief in its power and goodness. One of the joys of this novel is the trust that Ishiguro places in readers to catch the small details: what happened to Josie's sister Sal, who died before the story begins? Why does her father live in an armed community? And what is the mysterious 'portrait' Mr Capaldi wants to make of Klara? At a time when AI's impact is questioned daily, this novel feels prescient. But at its core this is a book about our humanity – what it means to be human and why that is irreplaceable. 'Klara And The Sun' is one of my favourite novels by one of our greatest living authors. I can't wait to get into it all with you.' – Dua Lipa

For the latest episode of the Service95 Book Club Podcast, Dua Lipa sat down with Ishiguro to dissect his one-of-a-kind novel, along with the connection between technology and identity, what makes us uniquely human, and whether our behaviors, memories, and relationships could be replicated through data. To accompany the monthly read, Ishiguro has also shared his recommended reading list and playlist.

Hooked around coverage of Ishiguro's Klara And The Sun, Service95 has commissioned an article exploring the rise of AI companions and the recent emergence of the loneliness economy. Additionally, Service95 has published a list of films and books spotlighting the enduring artistic obsession with technological advancements in connection with society and the collective concerns about progress. Readers can also check out a Service95 list of 'Six Authors On Their Favourite Ishiguro Novel,' including Luke Kennard, Naomi Ishiguro, Lin King and David Peace celebrating the author as a modern literary heavyweight.

The Service95 Book Club content comes just ahead of the upcoming film adaptation of Klara And The Sun, directed by Taika Waititi, which hits theaters October 23rd.

The Service95 Book Club is the latest extension of Service95 – a global cultural platform and community that also consists of a weekly newsletter and Dua Lipa's At Your Service podcast. The Service95 Book Club is a place where Dua Lipa shares her favorite reads straight from her bookshelf, alongside recommendations, reviews and interviews from the Service95 team and beyond. Dua Lipa's conversations with authors – from Margaret Atwood to Olga Tokarczuk and Ocean Vuong – peel back the layers behind stories selected from around the world and have earned her the title of 'one of Britain's foremost literary tastemakers' from The Telegraph and 'the queen of trendsetting literary taste' from The Independent. The Service95 Book Club podcast was also recognized among the Best Podcasts of the Week by The Guardian upon launch and landed atop Spotify's list of the Best Video Podcasts of 2025.

About Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His works of fiction have earned him many honours around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His books have been translated into over fifty languages and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were both made into acclaimed films. He received a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan. His most recent novel, Klara and the Sun, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller in both hardback and paperback. Ishiguro also works occasionally as a screenwriter. His screenplay for the 2022 film Living received Academy Award (Oscar) and BAFTA nominations.

About Dua Lipa

3x GRAMMY and 7x BRIT Award-winning global pop powerhouse Dua Lipa continues to be one of pop music's leading forces with the release of her third album, Radical Optimism. The album went No. 1 in 12 countries, including the UK where it became the biggest album debut from a UK female artist in 2024 and garnered the highest week one sales from a UK female artist since 2021. In the US, the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking Dua Lipa's biggest sales week yet. The New York Times named it a Critic's Pick and hailed it as 'an album of nonstop ear candy,' along with Variety, who declared it 'a joyous blast of pop savvy,' The New Yorker, who praised, 'the instrumentation is a gleaming and impenetrable expanse, and the main attraction is Lipa,' and Vogue, who raved it is 'a summery, self-assured slice of pop brilliance…[and] catchy as hell.'

Most recently, Dua Lipa released Dua Lipa (Live From Mexico) – a live album and concert film recorded during the finale of her globally acclaimed Radical Optimism Tour, which culminated in 92 shows across five continents, including back-to-back sold-out dates at Wembley Stadium, with over 1.75 million tickets sold across the global trek.

Following its release in 2020, Dua Lipa's certified platinum sophomore album Future Nostalgia became the longest running top 10 album by a female artist on the Billboard 200 in 2021. The GRAMMY Award-winning album spawned multiple worldwide hit singles, with 'Levitating' earning certified diamond status and the title of Billboard's No. 1 Hot 100 Song of 2021.

Dua Lipa has found superstar status on stage and off, thanks to her many passions outside of music. 2022 saw Dua Lipa launch Service95, a global style, culture and society editorial platform that now comprises a weekly newsletter, the Service95 Book Club and the Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast, which has been lauded by The Sunday Times and The Guardian, and was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2022 by Spotify. Having graced every major fashion magazine worldwide from Vogue and Elle to W and Dazed, Dua Lipa added 'designer' to her resume in 2023 when she co-designed Versace's 'La Vacanza' collection alongside Donatella Versace herself, which Vogue deemed 'the hottest collaboration of the summer.'

Dua Lipa's eponymous 2017 debut album is certified platinum, spawned six platinum tracks, and made her the first female artist in BRIT Awards history to pick up five nominations in a single year. Dua Lipa has a total of 10 GRAMMY nominations, with three wins for Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording. Additionally, she earned nominations at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for her hit song 'Dance The Night' from the box office sensation 'Barbie.' Across platforms globally, she has amassed over 50 billion streams and holds the record for being the first female artist to have two albums with over 15 billion streams each on Spotify.

Photo Credit: Service95 Book Club