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Cross Channel

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comes an enthralling set of short stories.

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 takes as his universal theme the British in France; from the last days of a reclusive English composer, the beef consuming 'navvies' labouring on the Paris-Rouen railway to a lonely woman mourning the death of her brother on the battlefields of the Somme.

© Julian Barnes 1996 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

Always intelligent and perceptive, but so beautifully written that it's easy to understand.
Week
Crisp with witty, urbane intelligence.
Sunday Times
Wonderfully ironic, perceptive and at times tender... Barnes has created something unique in his work, a particular way of looking at life, at words, at relationships, which is the mark of every true stylist
Financial Times
His writing demonstrates the billowing lightness of imagination... reading these stories, you perceive and love France afresh... Cross Channel is characterised by the intelligence, irony and wit you associate with his writing, but it is also suffused with feeling, deeply seasoned with affection
Independent
A glittering collection of stories... His marvellously supple and exact prose is matched with subjects that powerfully stir his creativity... It's impossible to imagine a fictional panorama of Britain's long relationship with France realized with more cordial understanding
Sunday Times
Love, sex, art, literature, wars, religion, wine, spirit, the steam engine and, yes, Eurostar: they are all there. All the emotions, attitudes, pursuits and endeavours that typically seem to link Britain to France feature in the first collection of short stories by Julian Barnes...A delightful book
European
Author Julian Barnes
Narrator Charles Armstrong
Duration 5 hours and 17 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781473584297
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Short stories
Availability AU, GB, IE

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