A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (Contemporary Fiction)

Fact, fiction, myth, opinion - Barnes's series of disjointed narratives about Noah's Ark, terrorist hijackers, shipwreck, woodworm, love and more is all of these. It leaves you torn between thinking that its sum is greater than its parts and that, then again, some of the parts are pretty damned good too, especially the half-chapter titled "Parenthesis". Somehow this pithy new Alex Jennings recording perfectly succeeds in combining the various "history is bunk" and "love conquers all" strands. - Sue Arnold, The Guardian

This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities and tendencies. After success with the main novels of Haruki Murakami, Naxos AudioBooks turns its attention to other major literary works of recent times.