The AMA Art Lovers Book Club will discuss Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel An Artist of the Floating World when the club has its first meeting of the new year.
 
The book club will meet at 6 pm  on Tuesday, Jan 21, 2020 at the Albany Museum of Art.
 
“The hectic holidays are behind us, life is getting back to a normal pace and the nights are still long. There’s no better time to sit back and enjoy a great book,” Annie Vanoteghem, director of education and public programming for the Albany Museum of Art, said. “Bring a favorite beverage or finger food if you like, and join us for some terrific discussion about a great read.”
 
Published in 1986, An Artist of the Floating World is a historical fiction novel narrated by an aging artist named Masuji Ono. Set in Japan shortly after the end of World War II, Ono finds the social climate and way of thinking are rapidly changing around him.
 
With his once great reputation faltering, Ono discovers that attitudes toward him and his artwork have dramatically changed. The painter struggles to take responsibility for his past actions and to find a pathway to inner peace in a changing world.
 
An Artist of the Floating World was the second novel written by Ishiguro, a native of Nagasaki, Japan. The 65-year-old writer’s father moved his family to Great Britain when he was 5 years old. A British citizen since 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.
 
There is no cost to participate in the book club. Participants can attend as many or as few meetings as they like. Vanoteghem does ask that those planning to attend email her at [email protected] by noon on Jan 21 so that adequate seating can be set up before the club meeting begins.
 
The 2019-20 book series will conclude on Tuesday, March 17 with a discussion of I, Juan de Parega by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.
 
“We’ve had tremendous interest in the AMA Art Lovers Book Club since we launched it last May,” Vanoteghem said. “The group has developed over the course of the bimonthly meetings and there has been some spirited conversation about characters, plots and such. I’m excited that it has taken off and we’ll continue with the club. Our club members are planning the new series of meetings that will start late this spring.”