Julian Barnes

Man för ihop två saker som ingen har fört ihop tidigare. Och världen förändras. I Livslägen blandar Julian Barnes essä, fiktion och egna minnen i tre texter som alla reflekterar varandra. Han skriver om fotografen och uppfinnaren Félix Nadar, som på 1800-talet kombinerade fotografi och ballongflygning och tog de första flygbilderna av jorden. Han berättar en uppdiktad historia om en kärleksrelation mellan skådespelerskan Sarah Bernhardt och den engelske resenären och äventyraren Fred Burnaby. Och slutligen skildrar han naket och ärligt sorgen efter en älskad hustru som plötsligt rycktes bort. Livslägen handlar om livets olika tillstånd, om det som lyfter oss och det som får oss att falla. Och om att förena två saker eller två människor och sedan skilja dem åt.

Man för ihop två saker som ingen har fört ihop tidigare. Och världen förändras. I Livslägen blandar Julian Barnes essä, fiktion och egna minnen i tre texter som alla reflekterar varandra. Han skriver om fotografen och uppfinnaren Félix Nadar, som på 1800-talet kombinerade fotografi och ballongflygning och tog de första flygbilderna av jorden. Han berättar en uppdiktad historia om en kärleksrelation mellan skådespelerskan Sarah Bernhardt och den engelske resenären och äventyraren Fred Burnaby. Och slutligen skildrar han naket och ärligt sorgen efter en älskad hustru som plötsligt rycktes bort. Livslägen handlar om livets olika tillstånd, om det som lyfter oss och det som får oss att falla. Och om att förena två saker eller två människor och sedan skilja dem åt.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending comes an elegant triptych of history, fiction, and memoir--a "wise, funny, and devastating ... discourse on love and sorrow" (The New York Times Book Review). In this "deeply stirring" book (The Boston Globe), Julian Barnes writes about ballooning and photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and tearing them apart; and enduring after the incomprehensible loss of a loved one. Powerfully rendered, exquisitely crafted in Barnes's erudite style, this searing work confirms the author as an unparalleled magus of the heart.

The Pedant's ambition is simple. He wants to cook tasty, nutritious food; he wants not to poison his friends; and he wants to expand, slowly and with pleasure, his culinary repertoire. A stern critic of himself and others, he knows he is never going to invent his own recipes (although he might, in a burst of enthusiasm, increase the quantity of a favourite ingredient). Rather, he is a recipe-bound follower of the instructions of others.It is in his interrogations of these recipes, and of those who create them, that the Pedant's true pedantry emerges. How big, exactly, is a 'lump'? Is a 'slug' larger than a 'gout'? When does a 'drizzle' become a downpour? And what is the difference between slicing and chopping?This book is a witty and practical account of Julian Barnes' search for gastronomic precision. It is a quest that leaves him seduced by Jane Grigson, infuriated by Nigel Slater, and reassured by Mrs Beeton's Victorian virtues. The Pedant in the Kitchen is perfect comfort for anyone who has ever been defeated by a cookbook and is something that none of Julian Barnes' legion of admirers will want to miss.

Denne intense romanen følger Tony Webster, en middelaldrende mann, mens han innhentes av en fortid han aldri har tenkt spesielt mye på – helt til hans nærmeste barndomsvenner dukker opp for å hjemsøke ham: En fra hinsides graven, og en som et levende og dypt urovekkende nærvær. Tony trodde han hadde lagt alt dette bak seg mens han bygde sitt eget liv. Karrieren har gitt ham en trygg pensjon og et vennlig forhold til sin ekskone og datteren, som nå har sin egen familie. Men idet han står overfor en mystisk arv tvinges han til å revurdere synet på sin egen natur, og sin egen plass i verden.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending and one of Britain's greatest writers: a brilliant collection of essays on the books and authors that have meant the most to him throughout his illustrious career. - " A] blissfully intelligent gathering of literary essays." --Financial Times In these seventeen essays (plus a short story and a special preface, "A Life with Books"), Julian Barnes examines the British, French and American writers who have shaped his writing, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling's view of France to the French view of Kipling, from the many translations of Madame Bovary to the fabulations of Ford Madox Ford, from the National Treasure status of George Orwell to the despair of Michel Houellebecq, Julian Barnes considers what fiction is, and what it can do. As he writes, "Novels tell us the most truth about life: what it is, how we live it, what it might be for, how we enjoy and value it, and how we lose it."

Flaubert’s Parrot, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984, concerns the attempts of an increasingly bemused researcher to establish certain facts about a famous French novelist and the stuffed bird which used to sit on his desk.A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters blends fact and fiction in a virtuoso kaleidoscope of vignettes from Noah’s time to the present. One of the author’s most inventive works, it was praised by Salman Rushdie as ‘frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic and a delight to read’.

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about--until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Papegøjen i denne romans titel er en udstoppet fugl som den store franske forfatter Gustave Flaubert havde stående foran sig på sit skrivebord da han i 1870 erne skrev historien om en gammel tjenestepige. Hun lod sin højt elskede papegøje udstoppe da den var død og endte med at tro at den var Helligånden. Denne fugl spiller en afgørende rolle for romanens hovedperson. Geoffrey Braithwaite er pensioneret læge med et livsprojekt: Han vil vide alt om den store franske forfatter Gustave Flauberts liv. Julian Barnes følger sin excentriske hovedperson på hans jagt efter sandheden om den forgudede forfatter. Fra Flauberts seksuelle debut til alderdommens tab af hår og tænder. Fra 1850 ernes Rouen og helt ind i soveværelset hos Flauberts veninde Louise en selvkørende og frigjort kvinde der langt fra er den gås samtiden afskrev hende som og her tager bladet fra munden. Den ihærdige amatørforsker citerer flittigt fra Flauberts bøger og breve. Moderne litteraters naragtige meninger om den berømte forfatter spiddes med satanisk ironi. Men Braithwaite har også selv en historie som han nødtvungent må afsløre. Om sit ægteskab. Om sin kone. Som han elskede men var ham utro og så tog sit eget liv. En sorg han ikke kan komme over og heller ikke finde ord for. Julian Barnes (f. 1946) er en af Englands mest læste forfattere. Stort set hele hans forfatterskab bestående af romaner essays og noveller foreligger i dansk oversættelse. Efteråret 2011 fik Barnes årets Man Booker Prize for sin seneste roman Når noget slutter (2011).