Anders Bodén, an esteemed sawmill manager and casual tour guide to those unfamiliar with the small Swedish town he calls home, finds a happy outlet for his knowledge of trees and local history when a...

Gregory ponders as he sits in the barber's chair at various stages of his life. His youthful preoccupation with the adult world gives way to the brash chippiness of the university student, and on, finally,...

A classical music aficionado and concert-goer bemoans the degradation of civility and respect among his fellow audience members. He develops a series of measures to counteract the prevalence of inconsiderate...

Christopher's early declaration that he has known his parents all his life is shown to be misguided. Following the widowing of one of their associates, and the emergence of their latter day estrangement,...

Janice and Merrill, two widows, converse about their departed husbands over breakfast. Fond memories of their spouses are recounted, but it is in what they leave unsaid that they find the greater sustenance.Part...

The ambiguous relationship between Ivan Turgenev and the ingénue starring in the revival of one of his early plays is revealed through the fragments of sources left to a researcher. It is a love predicated...

The updated edition of Julian Barnes’ best-loved writing on art, with seven new exquisite illustrated essays‘Flaubert believed that it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another, and that...

When it comes to death, is there ever a best case scenario? In this disarmingly witty book, Julian Barnes confronts our unending obsession with the end. He reflects on what it means to miss God, whether...

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2020*'A bravura performance, highly entertaining' Evening StandardThe Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending takes us on a rich, witty tour of Belle...

In these seventeen essays (and one short story) the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner examines British, French and American writers who have meant most to him, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings...

From the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comes an enthralling set of short stories.No one has a better perspective on life on both sides of the channel than Julian Barnes. In these exquisitely...

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011Staring at the Sun charts the life of Jean Serjeant, from her beginning as a naive, carefree country girl before the war through to her wry and trenchant...

Beginning with an unlikely stowaway's account of life on board Noah's Ark, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic...

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011Graham Hendrick, an historian, has left his wife Barbara for the vivacious Ann, and is more than pleased with his new life. Until, that is, the day he discovers...

With her husband descending into the advanced stages of dementia, Vivian discovers that reading from his favourite cookery books can call forth a temporary alleviation and a flash of happiness. But her...

Médecin anglais spécialiste de Flaubert, Geoffrey Breathwaite découvre dans un recoin du musée Flaubert, à Rouen, le perroquet empaillé qui inspira à Louise, la vieille servante d’Un coeur simple, une...

On pourrait commencer, prosaïquement, par ce qui peut être décrit comme une robe de chambre. Rouge — ou plus exactement écarlate — et allant du cou jusqu’à la cheville, laissant voir des ruchés blancs...

Ce sont les romans qui disent le plus de vérité sur la vie : ce qu’elle est, comment nous la vivons, quel sens elle pourrait avoir, comment nous la goûtons et l’apprécions, comment elle tourne mal et...

Ils venaient toujours vous chercher au milieu de la nuit… Alors il avait dit à Nita qu’il passerait ces heures inévitablement sans sommeil sur le palier, près de l’ascenseur. Il attendrait que la porte...

Nous vivons à ras de terre, à hauteur d'homme et pourtant – et par conséquent – nous aspirons à nous élever. Créatures terrestres, nous pouvons parfois nous hisser jusqu'aux dieux. Certains s'élèvent...

"Flaubert pensait qu'il est impossible d'expliquer "une forme artistique par une autre forme d'une autre espèce", et que les bons tableaux n'ont pas besoin de commentaires. Braque pensait que l'état idéal...

Un premier amour détermine une vie pour toujours : c’est ce que j’ai découvert au fil des ans. Il n’occupe pas forcément un rang supérieur à celui des amours ultérieures, mais elles seront toujours affectées...

Elle se tenait devant nous sans notes, ni livres, ni trac. Elle laissa son regard errer, sourit, immobile, et commença : "Vous aurez remarqué que le titre de ce cours est “Culture et Civilisation”. Ne...

Ceux qui veulent nier le passage du temps disent : quarante ans, ce n’est rien, à cinquante ans on est dans la fleur de l’âge, la soixantaine est la nouvelle quarantaine et ainsi de suite. Je sais pour...

'BARNES'S MASTERPIECE' - OBSERVERIn May 1937 a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House....

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.First love has lifelong consequences,...

From the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comes a novel of profound insight and comic flare.Shy, sensible banker Stuart has trouble with women; that is, until a fortuitous singles night,...

Now a major TV series starring Martin Clunes, Arsher Ali and Art MalikFrom the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011, an extraordinary true-life tale about a long-forgotten mystery...Arthur...

'I don't believe in God, but I miss Him.' Julian Barnes' new book is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his philosopher brother, a meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration...

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction As every schoolboy knows, you can fit the whole of England on the Isle of Wight. Grotesque, visionary tycoon Sir Jack Pitman takes the saying literally...