Ranging from the domestic to the extraordinary, from the vineyards of Italy to the English seaside in winter, the stories in Julian Barnes' long-awaited third collection resonate and spark. Each character is bent to a pulse, propelled on new beginnings and endings. A divorcee falls in love with a mysterious European waitress, but cannot resist the chance to delve into her past; a widower visits a remote Scottish island to relive a favourite holiday; two writers return from an event rehearsing familiar arguments; a couple bond, fall out and bond again over flowers and vegetable patches. Positioned in between are a series of evenings at "Phil & Joanna's", where among the topics of conversation - the environment, politics, the Britishness of marmalade, toilet graffiti, smoking - we witness the guests' lives shift in sections over the course of a year.
