Tony Webster is a man in his later years reflecting back on two key relationships in his younger life and the unexpected reverberations they are having on his current life. “We live in time -- it holds us and moulds us -- but I’ve never felt I understood it very well...I mean ordinary, everyday time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click-clock...And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time’s malleability.“ It is the addition of Adrian Finn into Tony’s boyhood circle of friends which illustrates time’s peculiarity. Adrian is a brilliant young man whose mind is able to grasp the intricacies of history and also daily life.

The other relationship examined is with Tony’s first girlfriend, Veronica. Told from his perspective, Veronica seems to be something of a snob with an unusual streak of cruelty.

This novel is only 163 pages long, yet it took me a week to read the book because I didn’t want to miss a single word. Examining time, loss, memory and love, this novel is brilliant; it is wise; and it is thought-provoking. It is a book to read again and again because with each re-reading, there is something new to savor. The Sense of an Ending was just awarded the 2011 Man-Booker Prize and, though I haven’t read other books on the short-list, I can’t imagine a better novel. ~Patti