Book description
In 'Bark', Jeanne-Etiene Delacour takes pleasure in the avoidance of
any threat to his longevity. Formerly a gourmand and a gambler but now
an ascetic, his fastidious new lifestyle is the result of an
investment in a public works project - one which holds the promise of
considerable reward for the last investor to survive. As he draws
black lines through the thirty-nine names in his pocket book, the
human capacity to rationalise any indulgence is explored.
In 'The Silence', a composer attests that silence is the logical
conclusion to music. He considers the silence that has been in effect
throughout the interminable wait for his Eight Symphony, and how it
will segue into the silence that will follow the end of his life - a
life he claims to have sacrificed on the altar of his art.
Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously
published in the collection The Lemon Table.
Julian Barnes is the author of ten previous novels, including
Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, A History of the World in
10½ Chapters and Arthur & George; three books of
short stories, Cross Channel, The Lemon Table and
Pulse; and also three collections of journalism, Letters
from London, Something to Declare, and The Pedant in the
Kitchen.
His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In
France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Médicis (for
Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Femina (for Talking it
Over). He was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European
Literature in 2004, the David Cohen Prize for Literature and the Man
Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011. He lives in London.
