The sense of an ending

The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes won the 2011 Man Booker Prize. The book is divided into two sections. In the first we meet Tony Webster and three of his friends completing their final year at school and attempting to establish their views on life. They vow to stay in touch and initially meet from time to time before drifting apart. Some years later Tony learns that one of his friends has committed suicide. Over the years Tony had a number of relationships, including a not always satisfactory relationship with Veronica. Eventually he married Margaret. They had a child and twelve years later they divorced, amicably. The second section of the book occurs when Tony is sixty and he receives a small, unexpected bequest when Veronica's mother dies. Puzzled, he tries to establish why he has been remembered and also strives to retrieve part of the bequest that Veronica is withholding.

The book is about relationships. It is also about memory and how we perceive and interpret the past.