Anita Brookner

Booker Prize-winner Anita Brookner captures the magic and depth of real life with this story of an ordinary man whose unexpected longings, doubts, and fears are universal.
 
Paul Sturgis is resigned to his bachelorhood and the quietude of his London flat. He occasionally pays obliging visits to his nearest living relative, Helena, his cousin’s widow. To avoid having to turn down her Christmas invitation, Paul sets off for a holiday...

Encountering each other later in life, Elizabeth and Betsy, two women sho had known each other since childhood, reflect on the decisions and the men who have shaped their destinies.

Despite growing up with a widowed and reclusive mother, young Zoë Cunningham retains an unshakable faith in storybook happy endings. When her mother, Anne, finally decides to remarry, Zoë is thrilled with her prospective stepfather, Simon Gould, who is not only wealthy, but also kind and generous. Simon’s affection for his new family allows Zoë to pursue what she thinks is an independent life: her own apartment in a fashionable...

An English lawyer's obsession with Sarah, a beautiful cousin. Unable to have her, he marries another, then when Sarah gives him the signal rushes to her side, only to be disappointed. He returns to his wife, but once again the cousin beckons.

Facing life alone at an advanced age, Julius Herz cannot shake the sense that he should be elsewhere, doing other things. Walking through bustling streets that seem increasingly alien to him, he's confronted by a sense that his whole life may have gone awry. Despite the growing ache in his heart, Herz finds himself also blessed with a stirring sense of exhilaration. After a lifetime of deferring to others' stronger wills, he faces a future of possibility,...