The Only Story

by Julian Barnes

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Pub Date 1 Feb 2018 | Archive Date 3 Mar 2018

Random House UK, Vintage Publishing | Jonathan Cape

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

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Description

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.

First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn’t know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he’s proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention.

As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen.

Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of fiction’s greatest mappers of the human heart.

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.

First love has lifelong...

Advance Praise

Praise for The Sense of an Ending

'A masterpiece... I would urge you to read – and re-read'
Daily Telegraph

'A very fine book, skilfully plotted, boldly conceived... Barnes has achieved...something of universal importance.'
Observer

'Mesmerising...the concluding scenes grip like a thriller – a whodunit of memory and morality.'
Independent

Praise for The Noise of Time

'A great novel, Barnes’s masterpiece… Exquisite, intimate detail. He has given us a novel that is powerfully affecting, a condensed masterpiece that traces the lifelong battle of one man’s conscience, one man’s art, with the insupportable exigencies of totalitarianism.'
Alex Preston, Observer

'[Barnes is] a master of the narrative sidestep… Not just a novel about music, but something more like a musical novel… The story itself is structured in three parts that come together like a broken chord. It is a simple but brilliant device, and one that goes right to the heart of this novel.'
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Times

Praise for The Sense of an Ending

'A masterpiece... I would urge you to read – and re-read'
Daily Telegraph

'A very fine book, skilfully plotted, boldly conceived... Barnes has achieved...something of...