The Only Story
Ratings10
Average rating3.3
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question. First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at nineteen. At nineteen, he's proud of the fact his relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater than he could possibly have foreseen. Tender and wise, The Only Story is a deeply moving novel by one of fiction's greatest mappers of the human heart.
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I typically do not read love stories. They bore me. But when Julian Barnes writes a love story there is nothing typical about it. From the concept of the story to the treatment of it. I loved this book. Paul falls in love with Susan and then spends his whole life living around that love. The whole tale of Paul and Susan's love over time is revealed in layers of their personalities and the people around them. Julian Barnes has some very incisive revelations to make. It is a beautifully told saga of love between two most unlikely people.
