Kōbō Abe
The Ark Sakura (方舟さくら丸 "Hakobune Sakura-maru") is a novel by the Japanese novelist Kōbō Abe. The novel's protagonist is a recluse who, convinced that the world will end soon, takes up residence in an abandoned mine and then attempts to sell tickets to his "ark" to people he deems worthy of saving from the apocalypse. The novel was originally published in 1984; the English translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter was released in 1988.