This is one of the lesser-known gems of Science Fiction by two Great Masters of the Golden Age, Asimov and Silverberg. The book is an extended version of the story "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov. I am not sure which author contributed which part, but the original story was fully written by Asimov.

The story takes place in the early days of the domestic use of robots (as narrated in the short story anthology "I, Robot"). Andrew is the only member of a new series of robots designed to help in their day-to-day lives. He is immediately liked by the children of the house he's assigned to. As time passes, his learning skills are found to be much greater than initially thought. He's also found to be much more receptive to learning about humans.

As time passes, the never-acing Andrew stars thinking about his existence and thinks that he should be free, as he is a sentient being. This creates a lot of repercussions in a suspicious public and causes a lot of lawsuits. Eventually getting his freedom, Andrew has one more missing thing to feel more "human"...

This is a moving, philosophically deep story. In a deeper level it is questioning what humanity is and what it means to be a human, going beyond the traditional approaches to the question. The original story and this book was filmed in 1999 and the role of Andrew Martin was played by the late Robin Williams. I genuinely encourage people to read the book and maybe watch the movie. Even people who are not science-fiction would love the book with its poignant questions and enquiries about the essence of humanity.