948. Japan is trying to pick up the pieces after World War II, leaving defeat behind and looking towards the future. The famous artist Masuji Ono fills his days taking care of his garden, his house, his two adult daughters, and his grandson, while spending his afternoons drinking with old colleagues in dimly lit bars. He should be enjoying his retirement years. But as his memories constantly return to the past, to a life and a career deeply influenced by Japanese militarism, a dark shadow threatens his peace.

A novel about heroes and cowards, but above all about people, by the Nobel Prize-winning and Booker Prize-winning Kazuo Ishiguro.