The Lemon Table - Softcover

Barnes, Julian

3.68

3,546 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330426923 ISBN 13: 9780330426923

Publisher: Picador, 2005

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

The character's in Julian Barnes' new collection of stories are growing old and facing the end of their lives - some with bitter regret, some with resignation and others still with raging defiance. The settings range from nineteenth-century Sweden and Russia to a suburban 'Barnet Shop', where the narrator measure out his life in haircuts, and a South Bank concert hall where a music lover carries out an obsessive campaign of revenge against those who cough in concerts. In 'Knowing French' a fiercely independent eighty-year old begins a correspondence with an author - 'Dear Dr Barnes' - that enriches both their lives. A woman reads elaborate recipes to her sick husband in 'Appetite'; a retired soldier in 'Hygiene' makes his annual trip to attend a regimental dinner, run errands for his wife and spend the afternoon with a tart called Babs.

In a collection that is wise and funny, clever and moving, Julian Barnes has created characters who passions and longings are made all the stronger by the knowledge that, for them, time is almost at an end.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

'Barnes has created a collection of acute observations which shows him to be at the top of his game’ -- Observer, 20 March

'The stories are unsentimentally affecting; Barnes is here, as
ever, both very clever and extremely funny' -- London Review of Books

‘These stories may be short but they are also most incredibly moving’ -- Sunday Express, 13 March

Book Description:

A brilliant collection of new stories from Julian Barnes, each dealing with the nuances of life and its inevitable end.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.