Love, Etc. - Vintage International by Julian Barnes Paperback

About the Book

Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes reinvigorates the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill. In "Love, etc." he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredients of a farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs, as he revisits the trio from "Talking It Over."

Book Synopsis

The bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending delivers a tragicomedy about a successful businessman who wants to undo the results of his former best friend's betrayal and get his ex-wife back. - "An alarmingly perfect novel." --The New York Review of Books

Shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize, Julian Barnes continues to reinvigorate the novel with his pyrotechnic verbal skill and playful manipulation of plot and character. In Love, etc. he uses all the surprising, sophisticated ingredients of a delightful farce to create a tragicomedy of human frailties and needs.

After spending a decade in America as a successful businessman, Stuart returns to London and decides to look up his ex-wife Gillian. Their relationship had ended years before when Stuart's witty, feckless, former best friend Oliver stole her away. But now Stuart finds that the intervening years have left Oliver's artistic ambitions in ruins and his relationship with Gillian on less than solid footing. When Stuart begins to suspect that he may be able to undo the results of their betrayal, he resolves to act. Written as an intimate series of crosscutting monologues that allow each character to whisper their secrets and interpretations directly to the reader, Love, etc. is an unsettling examination of confessional culture and a profound reflection on the power of perspective.

Review Quotes

"An alarmingly perfect novel.... Barnes's verbal mimicry is inventive, accomplished, revelatory, and also fun." --The New York Review of Books

"Lively, lucid, ricocheting with wryly observed commentary on the human condition." --Philadelphia Inquirer

"Painfully astute.... Barnes sharpens his insights with his penetrating wit and verbal virtuosity." --The Washington Post

"Julian Barnes ... [is an] ironist, artificer, psychologically flirtatious pool shark, a maestro who runs the table with his Rashomon variations." --The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Born in Leicester in 1946, Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, a book of stories, and a collection of essays. He has won both the Prix Médicis and the Prix Fémina, and in 1988 was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in London.