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2017 | Fiction & Poetry
"Barnes's Masterpiece" (Observer). In May 1937, a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return. "Stunning." (Sunday Times). "A profound meditation on power and the relationship of art and power...It is a masterpiece of sympathetic understanding...I don't think Barnes has written a finer, more truthful or more profound book." (Scotsman). "A tour de force by a master novelist at the top of his game." (Daily Express).
Julian Barnes
(Author)
| Published by | Vintage Publishing |
| Edition | Unknown |
| ISBN | 9781784703325 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781910702604 |
| Language | English |
Images And Data Courtesy Of: Vintage Publishing.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance
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The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated
Oct 7, 2020
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated
Oct 9, 2017 (Updated Oct 9, 2017)
From his complex relationships with women, to the government, the artist was forced to live a life of paranoia, after many of his fellow composers and musicologists mysteriously disappeared following talks with the "Power" at the Big House. There were many moments where it resembled Room 101 from George Orwell's 1984, and the oppressive atmosphere that Shostakovich had to live through.
In the end, Julian Barnes explains that agreeing to Stalin's and Khrushchev's demands had been the ultimate downfall to his health. and in many ways it was a fate worse than death. It is grim and tragic to think about such an important composer in history being treated in such way.
