Reviews
"Barnes is a witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form...Cross Channelis in the best sense an artful book." --San Francisco Chronicle "Fluently written, finely observed...delicately patterned." --New York Times, "Barnes is a witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form ... Cross Channel is in the best sense an artful book." --San Francisco Chronicle "Fluently written, finely observed ... delicately patterned." --The New York Times, "Barnes is a witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form...Cross Channelis in the best sense an artful book." --San Francisco Chronicle "Fluently written, finely observed...delicately patterned." --New York Times From the Trade Paperback edition., "Barnes is a witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form... Cross Channel is in the best sense an artful book." --San Francisco Chronicle "Fluently written, finely observed...delicately patterned." --New York Times
Synopsis
In his first collection of short stories, Barnes explores the narrow body of water containing the vast sea of prejudice and misapprehension which lies between England and France with acuity humor, and compassion. For whether Barnes's English characters come to France as conquerors or hostages, laborers, athletes, or aesthetes, what they discover, alongside rich food and barbarous sexual and religious practices, is their own ineradicable Englishness. The ten stories that make up Cross Channel introduce us to a plethora of intriguing, original, and sometimes ill-fated characters. Elegantly conceived and seductively written, Cross Channel is further evidence of Barnes's wizardry., From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending, his first collection of short stories explores the vast divide between England and France. - "A witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form." -- San Francisco Chronicle In this collection, Barnes explores the narrow body of water containing the vast sea of prejudice and misapprehension which lies between England and France with acuity, humor, and compassion. For whether Barnes's English characters come to France as conquerors or hostages, laborers, athletes, or aesthetes, what they discover, alongside rich food and barbarous sexual and religious practices, is their own ineradicable Englishness. The ten stories that make up Cross Channel introduce us to a plethora of intriguing, original, and sometimes ill-fated characters. Elegantly conceived and seductively written, Cross Channel is further evidence of Barnes's wizardry., From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending, his first collection of short stories explores the vast divide between England and France. * "A witty, playful and ironic writer at the top of his form." -- San Francisco Chronicle In this collection, Barnes explores the narrow body of water containing the vast sea of prejudice and misapprehension which lies between England and France with acuity, humor, and compassion. For whether Barnes's English characters come to France as conquerors or hostages, laborers, athletes, or aesthetes, what they discover, alongside rich food and barbarous sexual and religious practices, is their own ineradicable Englishness. The ten stories that make up Cross Channel introduce us to a plethora of intriguing, original, and sometimes ill-fated characters. Elegantly conceived and seductively written, Cross Channel is further evidence of Barnes's wizardry.
