Through the Window Paperback - 2012

Media reviews

“Pitch perfect…. It takes a novelist, with all his spidery web-weaving, to write an essay so touching yet so elusive.”
—The Independent
 
“Engaging, eloquent, entertaining and erudite….  I would defy anyone not to leave without feeling both better informed and better disposed…. It is rare indeed for a collection of occasional pieces such as this is to inspire feelings of profound thankfulness.”
—The Scotsman
 
“A gem of literary insight…. It’s arguable that the literary form in which he most singularly succeeds is not the novel, or the short story, but the essay…. Magnificent collection of pieces…. As a prose writer, he is warm, considerate, calm and polite. He doesn’t show off, doesn’t baffle. He manages to generate, as well, a feeling of complicity, and can be witty, sardonic and occasionally shocking…. Taken together, these qualities are immensely beguiling…. A truly wonderful collection.”
—Andrew Holgate, The Sunday Times
 
“Repeatedly, Barnes reveals his ability to make the familiar look unfamiliar, holding pieces of writing up to the light and slowly turning them until they start to glint…. Such local surprises are typical of the book as a whole, which encourages readers to dip and rewards them for lingering.”
—The Telegraph
 
“An elegant, witty collection…a wonderful starting place for encountering Julian Barnes…. Barnes celebrates the forgotten protectors and preservers of art—translators, travellers, restorers and cataloguers. And every essay, meticulously informed and well read, is a little story in itself.”
—Readings (Australia)
 
“Should strike a responsive chord in anyone who loves books…. A series of deep, loving plunges into the world of literature…. Barnes is a fine literary companion.”
—Kirkus Reviews