The Sense of an Ending
Paperback Published on: 08/01/2026
Price: £9.99
Bookseller Reviews
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Flawless
If I may be completely honest with you, I will tell you a secret. I am always a little wary of novels and writers that are supposedly literary geniuses. I ... READ MORE
Flawless
If I may be completely honest with you, I will tell you a secret. I am always a little wary of novels and writers that are supposedly literary geniuses. I ... READ MORE
A thought provoking read..
A beautiful and concise exploration of memory and the power of hindsight, whose ending is reason enough to read the whole novella. On paper the plot is mun... READ MORE
Synopsis
We live in time - it holds us and molds us - but I never felt I understood it very well.
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, Tony Webster and Adrian Finn swore to stay friends for life. Now in middle age, a lawyer’s letter proves that Tony’s memory may be imperfect. The story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past, The Sense of an Ending is laced with Julian Barnes’ trademark precision, dexterity and insight, and won him the Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011.
‘A precise, poignant portrait of the costs and benefits of time passing, of friendship, of love. A small masterpiece’ Erica Wagner, The Times
Publisher information
- Publisher: Vintage Publishing
- ISBN: 9781529972313
- Number of pages: 160
- Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 12 mm
- Weight: 134g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allGood little read
I enjoyed this book. It's shorter than I expected, easily readable in a few days. It really makes you consider how in time, memories fade and become how yo... READ MORE
Memory reality and mortality
Like Ian McEwan, Barnes writes convincingly about the male psyche and its evolution from youth to maturity. Indeed much of the early part of this accomplis... READ MORE
Poignant questions
I found this book very powerful. I loved the protagonists' interpretation and recall of events. The characters were very real and the questions posed were ... READ MORE
A sense of excellence
Gripping, persuasive, thought-provoking: this is a gem of a novel and a deserved Booker Prize winner. Tony is in his sixties, and, despite his apparently a... READ MORE
Disappointing
Laborious to read especially after the first ten pages.
True to life (in the USA) so doesn't translate entirely to the UK. Believable but booring!
I read i... READ MORE
A rare treat
Tony Webster, now in his sixties, has to evaluate how accurate his memories are, when documents make him question past relationships and the circumstances ... READ MORE
Quality, not quantity!
Wow! What an amazing little book! I'd only ever read one of Barnes' other offerings- 'Arthur & George'- and so expected to be entertained, but this blew me... READ MORE
Beautifully written, but not a strong plot
Tony first meets Adrian at school, and he joins their little clique, where they form a friendship that they pledge will last for the rest of their lives. A... READ MORE
Short but sweet
I had never read anything by Julian Barnes before, but had heard of him winning lots of prizes (which put me off). I picked up this book not expecting much... READ MORE
Sloppy grammar, disappointing
It must be one of those Booker Prizes given in acknowledgement of his previous work as this book had so many grammatical errors it set my teeth on edge. If... READ MORE
Expected more.
I bought this as part of my 'must read the shortlist before the MBP winner is announced' challenge.
I have never read Julian Barnes before and was slightl... READ MORE
It's very short - just read it!
There isn't much of a plot to this deceptively short and simple book, but I don't think that's important - what's interesting is the way that the protagoni... READ MORE
Disappointed
I picked this book because I wanted to know why it was so much talked about and maybe my expectations were so high that I was bound to be disappointed. The... READ MORE
an unsettling but enthralling story
This has all the ingredients I love in a work of literature: a clear theme, a plot which takes unexpected turns, vivid characters and stirring prose. Benea... READ MORE
Disappointed
This was the first book I read by this author and unfortunately, I finished it relieved yet disappointed. The story was slow and didn't ever really develop... READ MORE
A real page turner
A short but powerful and very well written story. A worthy Man Booker prize winner but please don't let that put you off!
The Sense of an Ending
Very well written and an easy and enjoyable read. Its easy to finish the book in a couple of days and there is a natural break as the book is in two parts.... READ MORE
A Sense of Mediocre
I neither liked or disliked this book and the best I can say for it is that it is short.
Good characters but the prose often rambles though areas of the pl... READ MORE
The Sense of an Ending
Good plot...
A very engaging book...however, I feel that Barnes is repetitive when going on about obtaining the main characters' inheritance...but this is not frequent ... READ MORE
T for Traumatizing
Brilliantly written. A reread type. You'll be left traumatized
I loved this book
I'd been wanting to read this book for a while and it didn't dissapoint me. I was hooked and read it very quickly, I now feel like going back and reading ... READ MORE
The Sense of an Ending has a poor ending
Rather sententious and preachy. And to pardon a pun, the frisson of the twist at the end left me cold.