Artist of the Floating World

In this novel, published in 1986 by Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese-British author depicts a post-World War II Japan as people try to pick themselves up from the wreckage of war. The famous artist Masuji Ono reflects on his past, having stopped painting and started tending his garden, and ponders the future of his two daughters and grandson. Japan’s recent past, with its rising militarism that led to its devastating defeat during the war, haunts Ono, making him reconsider his role before the war and prompting him to apologize and look at his artistic career with a new eye.