The Sense of an Ending is a compelling novel that follows Tony Webster, 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. Tony thought he had left all this behind as he built a life for himself. However, he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider various things he thought he’d understood all along and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

This novel has stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, and is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. The Sense of an Ending is so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting. It is a novel that explores memory, guilt, and the complexity of human relationships.