Praise for Julian Barnes’s The Lemon Table A New York Times Notable Book “Barnes is a top-flight precisionist, [with] the steady, pleasing wit of English comic realism, in which sheer intelligence and acute observation carry the whole production, line after line, page after page…. The Lemon Table, in ways both modest and grand, helps sustain a reader’s faith in literature as the truest form of assisted living.” —The New York Times Book Review “These gracefully constructed stories are subtle, erudite, and wise; they elevate us because there are few such generous observers of humanity. In a word: The Lemon Table is Barnes at his profound, dexterous best.” —Esquire “[Julian Barnes is] one of the most gifted contemporary shapers of prose, possessed of a remarkable limberness of form and voice, and an unconstrained literary imagination.” —The New Republic “The stories in The Lemon Table are quite old-fashioned—in the best sense of the word. They remind one of the deceptive simplicity of the stories of Chekhov or that prodigy of the absurd, Nikolai Gogol. With their underlying classicism, their commitment to truth and beauty, Barnes’s stories also harken back to a pre-existential time in which hope was still, in a tragic sort of way, possible.” —The Boston Globe “Barnes can telescope the whole world through a single lens…. Each story unfolds with masterly speed, diving quickly to the heart of the matter.” —The Courier-Journal (Louisville) “Remarkable meditations on loneliness and aging.” —St. Petersburg Times “Julian Barnes has many interests [and] a variety of talents that enable him to manage them all…. The Lemon Table leaves one in no doubt as to Barnes’s virtuosity.” —The Guardian (London) “[A] brave, well-crafted book…. Barnes describes the realities of aging with precision and a knack for matching narrative device to psychological reality.” —People “‘Were you as young as you felt, or as old as you looked?’ This is the conundrum at the heart of The Lemon Table, [with] assorted pensioners, catty widows, randy old army majors, and noise-sensitive concertgoers forcefully exercising their right not to go gently into that good night.” —Vogue Julian Barnes The Lemon Table Born in Leicester, England, in 1946, Julian Barnes is the author of a previous book of stories, Cross Channel, two collections of essays, a translation of Alphonse Daudet’s In the Land of Pain, and nine novels. In France, he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Médicis and the Prix Fémina, and in 2004 he became a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; in England his honors include the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He has also received the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He lives in London. www.julianbarnes.com ALSO BY JULIAN BARNES FICTION METROLAND BEFORE SHE MET ME FLAUBERT’S PARROT STARING AT THE SUN A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10½ CHAPTERS TALKING IT OVER THE PORCUPINE CROSS CHANNEL ENGLAND, ENGLAND LOVE, ETC. NONFICTION LETTERS FROM LONDON, 1990-1995 SOMETHING TO DECLARE THE PENDANT IN THE KITCHEN TRANSLATION IN THE LAND OF PAIN by Alphonse Daudet to Pat Contents A SHORT HISTORY OF HAIRDRESSING THE STORY OF MATS ISRAELSON THE THINGS YOU KNOW HYGIENE THE REVIVAL VIGILANCE BARK KNOWING FRENCH APPETITE THE FRUIT CAGE THE SILENCE A Short History of Hairdressing