โ Scribed by Julian Barnes
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize
By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.
This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought aboutuntil his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought hed left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought hed understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barness oeuvre.
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"An extremely moving, a precise book about the imprecision of memory and how it constructs people, stories and histories." -- Alasitair Bruce Guardian "Intriguing and engaging." -- David Robb Daily Express "Packs quite an emotional punch... Julian Barnes unravels the mystery with masterly skill. He springs surprise after surprise without stooping to sensationalism in a crisp, engaging tale" -- Max Davidson Daily Mail "Written in beautifully cadenced prose, it is a mature writer's reflections on love and marriage... on family and friendship, on work and death" Time Out "There is no catastrophe, simply a dawning awareness of the past, its consequences and its meaning for the present. It is a familiar narrative structure, but in the hands of the master-wordsmith that Barnes has become, the effect is cumulatively overwhelming... A compelling, disturbing and profoundly moving story of human fallibility" -- Daniel Johnson Standpoint
Elegant, playful, and remarkable. The New Yorker
A page-turner, and when you finish you will return immediately to the beginning. San Francisco Chronicle
Beautiful. . . . An elegantly composed, quietly devastating tale. Heller McAlpin, NPR
Dense with philosophical ideas. . . . It manages to create genuine suspense as a sort of psychological detective story. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Evelyn Waugh did it in Brideshead Revisited, as did Philip Larkin in Jill [and] Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day. Now, with his powerfully compact new novel, Julian Barnes takes his place among the subtly assertive practitioners of this quiet art. The New York Times Book Review
[A] jewel of conciseness and precision. The Sense of an Ending packs into so few pages so much that the reader finishes it with a sense of satisfaction more often derived from novels several times its length. The Los Angeles Times
Exquisitely crafted, sophisticated, suspenseful, and achingly painful, The Sense of an Ending is a meditation on history, memory, and individual responsibility. The Philadelphia Inquirer
Clever, provocative. . . . A brilliant, understated examination of memory and how it works, how it compartmentalizes and fixes impressions to tidily store away. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Concisely written and yet rich and full of emotional depth. . . . Its highly original as well. And complicated, just like life. New York Journal of Books
Elegiac yet potent, The Sense of an Ending probes the mysteries of how we remember and our impulse to redact, correctand sometimes entirely eraseour pasts. Vogue
Ominous and disturbing. This outwardly tidy and conventional story is one of Barness most indelible [and] looms oppressively in our minds. The Wall Street Journal
At 163 pages, The Sense of an Ending is the longest book I have ever read, so prepare yourself for rereading. You wont regret it. Jane Juska, The San Francisco Chronicle
With his characteristic grace and skill, Barnes manages to turn this cat-and-mouse game into something genuinely suspenseful. The Washington Post
Ferocious. . . . A book for the ages. Cleveland Plain Dealer
Concisely written and yet rich and full of emotional depth. . . . At times, side-splittingly funny, at others, brutally honest, but always delightfully well observed. . . . Ironically, despite focusing on endings, and on suicide, this is a tremendously life-affirming work. Its highly original as well. And complicated, just like life. New York Journal of Books
Elegiac yet potent, The Sense of an Ending probes the mysteries of how we remember and our impulse to redact, correct and sometimes entirely erase our pasts. . . . Barness highly wrought meditation on aging gives just as much resonance to what is unknown and unspoken as it does to the momentum of its own plot. Vogue
Novel, fertile and memorable . . . . A highly wrought meditation on aging, memory and regret. The Guardian (London)
A brilliant, understated examination of memory and how it works, how it compartmentalizes and fixes impressions to tidily store away. . . . Clever, provocative. . . . Barnes reminds his readers how fragile is the tissue of impressions we conveniently rely upon as bedrock. Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Brief, beautiful. . . . That fundamentally chilling questionAm I the person I think I am?turns out to be a surprisingly suspenseful one. . . . As Barnes so elegantly and poignantly reveals, we are all unreliable narrators, redeemed not by the accuracy of our memories but by our willingness to question them." The Boston Globe.
Quietly mesmerizing. . . . A slow burn, measured but suspenseful, this compact novel makes every slyly crafted sentence count. The Independent (London)
"Deliciously intriguing...with complex and subtle undertones [and] laced with Barnes' trademark wit and graceful writing." The Washington Times
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
[The Man Booker Prize](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/awards/booker.htm) (nominee) The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished wr
### Review Shortlistedfor the Man Booker Prize [2011] A *New York Times* Notable Book "*The Sense of an Ending* has the markings of a classic of English Literature. It is exquisitely written, subtly plotted and reveals new depths with each reading." Dame Stella Rimington, Chair of the 2011 Ma
By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, _The Sense of an Ending_ extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling _Arthur & George_ and continued with _Nothing to Be Frightened Of_ and, most recently, _Pulse._ This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as h
**Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize** By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, *The Sense of an Ending* extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling *Arthur & George* and continued with *Nothing to Be Frightened Of* and, most recently, *Pulse.* Th
\*\*This Man Booker Prizewinning novel is now a major motion picture. **A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting,* The Sense of an Ending* has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Ba