A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

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It's a hilariously revisionist account of Noah's ark, narrated by a passenger who doesn't appear in Genesis. It's a sneak preview of heaven. It encompasses the stories of a cruise ship hijacked by terrorists and of woodworms tried for blasphemy in sixteenth century France. In short, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is a grandly ambitious and inventive work of fiction, in the traditions of Joyce and Calvino, from the author of the widely acclaimed Flaubert's Parrot, also available in Vintage International paperback.
© Alan Edwards
JULIAN BARNES is the author of twenty-five previous books, for which he has received the Man Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Prix Médicis and Prix Femina. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, and in 2021 the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in London. View titles by Julian Barnes
“Stunning … a flawless diamond.” —Chicago Sun-Times

"Playful, witty and entertaining." —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review

"Frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic and a delight to read." —Salman Rushdie, Observer

"At his best, Barnes is a dazzler." —Los Angeles Times

“It’s a book to keep the reader on his toes.” —The New York Review of Books

About

It's a hilariously revisionist account of Noah's ark, narrated by a passenger who doesn't appear in Genesis. It's a sneak preview of heaven. It encompasses the stories of a cruise ship hijacked by terrorists and of woodworms tried for blasphemy in sixteenth century France. In short, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is a grandly ambitious and inventive work of fiction, in the traditions of Joyce and Calvino, from the author of the widely acclaimed Flaubert's Parrot, also available in Vintage International paperback.

Author

© Alan Edwards
JULIAN BARNES is the author of twenty-five previous books, for which he has received the Man Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Prix Médicis and Prix Femina. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, and in 2021 the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in London. View titles by Julian Barnes

Praise

“Stunning … a flawless diamond.” —Chicago Sun-Times

"Playful, witty and entertaining." —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review

"Frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic and a delight to read." —Salman Rushdie, Observer

"At his best, Barnes is a dazzler." —Los Angeles Times

“It’s a book to keep the reader on his toes.” —The New York Review of Books

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