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Before She Met Me

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About this listen

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...

©1982 Julian Barnes (P)2020 Penguin Audio Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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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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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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