We''d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch. We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation. Her ideas are not to everyone''s taste. But she will change the way you see the world. ''The task of the present is to correct our understanding of the past. And that task becomes the more urgent when the past cannot be corrected.'' Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration - always rigorous, always thoughtful. With careful empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centres of seriousness. As a former student unpacks her notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years. Her ideas unlock the philosophies of the past, and explore key events that show us how to make sense of our lives today. And underpinning them all is the story of J - Julian the Apostate, her historical soulmate and fellow challenger to the institutional and monotheistic thinking that has always threatened to divide us. This is more than a novel. It''s a loving tribute to philosophy, a careful evaluation of history, an invitation to think for ourselves. It''s a moment to reflect and to gently explore our own theories and assumptions. It is truly a balm for our times.
Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and The Noise of Time. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and two books of non-fiction, Nothing to be Frightened Of and the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life. In 2017 he was awarded the Legion d'honneur.
** The Sunday Times Number One bestseller ** A Daily Telegraph / Financial Times / Guardian / Sunday Times / The Times / New Statesman / Observer Book of the Year ''BARNES''S MASTERPIECE.'' - OBSERVER In 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. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return. So begins Julian Barnes''s first novel since his Booker-winning The Sense of an Ending . A story about the collision of Art and Power, about human compromise, human cowardice and human courage, it is the work of a true master.
A memoir about the author's family and an exchange with his brother (a philosopher). This book also covers meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and a homage to the French writer Jules Renard.
If Julian Barnes' new collection of stories has a theme, it is 'rage in age', as each character faces death in a different way. The settings range from 18th-century Sweden to the 'Barnet Shop', a hairdressing salon where an old man measures out his life in haircuts. In another story, a music lover campaigns against those who cough in concerts.
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. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.
