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Before She Met Me

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Before She Met Me

By: Julian Barnes
Narrated by: David Bark-Jones
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011

Graham Hendrick, an historian, has left his wife Barbara for the vivacious Ann, and is more than pleased with his new life. Until, that is, the day he discovers Ann's celluloid past as a mediocre film actress. Soon Graham is pouncing on old clues, examining her books for inscriptions from past lovers, frequenting cinemas and poring over the bad movies she appeared in. It's not that he blames Anne for having a past before they met, but history has always mattered to him...

© Julian Barnes 1982 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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Critic reviews

A short and brutally brilliant novel about a relationship ruined by jealousy, this is packed with acute observations about the nature of love
Frighteningly plausible... stunningly well done
Funny, sad and faintly ominous...making jealousy tangible and dangerous
An intelligent and addictive entertainment... Mr Barnes has succeeded in writing one of those books that keep us up until 2am reading just one chapter more... few will be able to resist its easy humour and almost insidious readability
Compelling
Concise and witty about psychology, ideas and love, in all its many forms
All stars
Most relevant
I just couldn't buy the premise. I also found the response of the wife a tad unbelievable. Still, it is very well written. The audio performance was decent enough.

Not quite as good as his first book

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A great idea. Brilliant start. Disappointing ending. I can’t help feeling that Barnes lacks the courage to be a really great writer. Here, again, he yields to the temptation to play safe, to provide a sense of an ending. A good editor would help, I think. Life, as others have said, isn’t tidy and it ends when it ends. One voice can be more resonant than two. I fear that poor old Julian just isn’t up to the job.

A good start but …

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