An Artist Of The Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro examines guilt, truth and ageing through the highly subjective reminiscences of a retired painter in post-war Japan.

"‘A work of spare elegance: refined, understated, economic."  -  Sunday Times

In 1948, Japan is rebuilding her cities after the calamity of World War II, her people putting defeat behind them and looking to the future. Celebrated painter Masuji Ono fills his days attending to his garden, his house repairs, his two grown daughters and his grandson, and his evenings drinking with old associates in quiet lantern-lit bars. His should be a tranquil retirement. But as his memories continually return to the past, a dark shadow begins to creep into his mind.

"Good writers abound—good novelists are very rare. Kazuo Ishiguro is that rarity. . . . An Artist of the Floating World is the kind [of book] that stretches the reader's awareness, teaching him to read more perceptively."  —  The New York Times Book Review

Kazuo Ishiguro’s works of fiction have earned him many honours around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were both made into acclaimed films. Ishiguro was awarded 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.