| Author | Kazuo Ishiguro |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
| Publication date | 1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 206 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-571-20913-0 |
| Preceded by | A Pale View of Hills |
| Followed by | The Remains of the Day |
An Artist of the Floating World (1986) is a novel by British-Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro. It is set in post-World War II Japan and is narrated by Masuji Ono, an aging painter, who looks back on his life and how he has lived it. He notices how his once great reputation has faltered since the war and how attitudes towards him and his paintings have changed. The chief conflict deals with Ono's need to accept responsibility for his past actions. The novel attempts to ask and answer the question: what is man's role in a rapidly changing environment? The novel was shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for the same year.
