No one has a better perspective on life on both sides of the channel than Julian
Barnes. In these exquisitely crafted stories spanning several centuries, he tak
es as his universal theme the British in France; from the last days of a reclusi
ve English composer, the beef consuming 'navvies' labouring on the Paris-Rouen r
ailway to a lonely woman mourning the death of her brother on the battlefields o
f the Somme.Clever, wise, reflective and imaginative, these stories are permeate
d with understanding of what it has meant for generations from these islands to
cross the Channel.
