Book description
Sylvia Winstanley, the youngest and most competent resident in a home
for the elderly and self-labelled maverick, begins a written
correspondence with the author of Flaubert's Parrot. We are
treated to one half of the confused and hilarious dialogue between the
two. Sylvia's bout of 'epistolomania' offers a charming perspective on
growing old, and the associated difficulty of continuing to look
forward rather than back.
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was 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.
