Elizabeth Finch
From the Booker Prize-winning author of THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
The Sunday Times Bestseller from the Winner of the Booker Prize
She will change the way you see the world . . .
'I'll remember Elizabeth Finch when most other characters I've met this year have faded' The Times
Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration. Neil is just one of many who fell under her spell during his time in her class. Tasked with unpacking her notebooks after her death, Neil encounters once again Elizabeth's astonishing ideas on the past and on how to make sense of the present.
But Elizabeth was much more than a scholar. Her secrets are waiting to be revealed . . . and will change Neil's view of the world forever.
'Enthralling . . . A connoisseur and master of irony himself, [Barnes] fills this book with instances of its exhilarating power' Sunday Times
'A lyrical, thoughtful and intriguing exploration of love, grief and the collective myths of history' Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Booker Prize winner Barnes (The Sense of an Ending) delivers a tepid, talky meditation on the impact of a professor on a middle-aged man. Former actor Neil, wounded by the end of his marriage, signs up for an adult education course titled "Culture and Civilisation" taught by Elizabeth Finch, an author of two scholarly works. He's immediately entranced by Finch's calm, rigorous presence as she lectures on St. Ursula, the abolition of slavery, and Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, causing Neil to feel his "brain change gear." After the course ends, Neil meets Finch for lunch two or three times a year for two decades, though she never eases her reserved demeanor. One day, Neil learns Elizabeth has died and is astonished that she has left him her books and papers. Scouring her bequest for clues on the private life she kept hidden, he honors her frequent references to Julian the Apostate by writing the essay on the emperor that forms the novel's central section, which, via Barnes, is reliably intelligent and perceptive. Barely characterized beyond his preoccupation with Finch's ideas, which Barnes shares in lengthy quotations from her lectures and notebooks, Neil, though, is less character than mouthpiece. "You can see, I hope, why I adored her," he effuses, but Finch's appeal remains as mysterious as she does. Even devoted fans may be disappointed.
