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.
Now Tony is in middle age. 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.
The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.
Tony Webster跟他的一票死黨們在高中時結識Adrian Finn。知識飢渴、性飢渴的一群男校生，共同探索這段笨拙的青少年時光，互相交流感情、笑話、幽默感及機智。Adrian肯定是他們之中最聰明的一個，或許也是最認真嚴肅的一個。無論如何，他們互相許諾友誼長存，永不相忘。直到那天，Adrian不幸的意外，讓這票死黨，特別是Tony，各自盡最大的努力忘掉彼此，以迎向未來的新生活。(文/納丘)
作者簡介
Julian Barnes is the author of ten previous novels, including Metroland, Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters and Arthur & George; three books of short stories, Cross Channel,The Lemon Table and Pulse; and also 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). He was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2004 and the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2011. He lives in London.
