The Sense of an Ending

This title is winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. May be Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove.

Julian Barnes is the author of eleven novels, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, A History of the World in 10 Chapters and Arthur & George. The Sense of an Ending is his most recent novel and the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. He has also written three books of short stories, Cross Channel, The Lemon Table and Pulse; and three collections of journalism, Letters from London, Something to Declare and The Pedant in the Kitchen. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Medicis (for Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Femina (for Talking it Over). In 2004 he received the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and in 2011 he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. He lives in London.

"A masterpiece... I would urge you to read - and re-read - The Sense of an Ending" Daily Telegraph "Mesmerising... the concluding scenes grip like a thriller - a whodunit of memory and morality" Independent "A very fine book, skilfully plotted, boldly conceived... Barnes has achieved...something of universal importance" -- Justin Cartwright Observer "A precise, poignant portrait of the costs and benefits of time passing, of friendship, of love. A small masterpiece" -- Erica Wagner The Times "A wonderful story that is all too human and all so real" Irish Times