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THE MESMERISING FINAL NOVEL BY THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF HOTEL DU LAC, NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY TESSA HADLEY

‘He was haunted by a feeling of invisibility, as if he were a mere spectator of his own life, with no one to identify him in the barren circumstances of the here and now’

Paul Sturgis – unmarried, retired, and coming towards the end of his life – lives alone in a small dark flat which has never felt like home. Each day, he walks the streets of London, passing brightly lit windows into other people’s lives and finding pleasure in fleeting exchanges with strangers: the cheerful hairdresser, the lady at the drycleaners, a café stop for a cup of coffee. When he longs for light and warmth, he takes short trips to the continent, but it is to London that he always returns.

Fearing that his destiny may be to live and die among strangers, and longing for companionship or simply conversation, Paul finds himself drawn back to memories of his own failed relationships. But when a chance encounter with a recently divorced younger woman shakes up his routine, and an old girlfriend appears on the scene, he is forced to make a decision about how – and with whom – he wants to spend the rest of his days.

‘No one writes with more skill and honesty about the human condition and this book is possibly her finest’ Observer

‘A novel of sober brilliance, and the unerring, unflinching Brookner is still a much underestimated novelist’ Helen Dunmore, The Times

‘Nothing less than brilliant, often highly amusing and, ultimately life affirming’ Sunday Telegraph

© Anita Brookner 2009 (P) Penguin Audio 2026