Here are five things we didn't know about the novelist Julian Barnes. He was a “zealous and unflagging” masturbator in his youth. He has never been to a normal church service. He is deaf in his left ear. His father never said “I love you” to him. And he fears death so acutely that he wakes in the night beating his pillow and screaming, “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh no!”

We know these now because, at the age of 62, Barnes has written a new book, Nothing to Be Frightened Of, a dazzling memoir-cum-essay crammed with black humour, quotations from French writers and personal reminiscence. He calls it “my death book” and he's been thinking about it for 20 years.

no šejienes

starp citu, lūk, viens no maniem ever mīļākajiem tekstiem pasaules literatūrā, stāsts no10 "sapnis" (tur pašās beigās), visiem ļoti rekomendēju, tāpat kā pārējo grāmatu, ja nu kāds vēl nav pacenties atraut pakaļu no krēsla